Elon Musk’s SpaceX and wholly-owned subsidiary xAI are competing in a new, secretive Pentagon tender to develop voice-controlled autonomous drone swarm technology, according to people familiar with the matter.
The entry of Musk’s two companies — which he announced in early February would be merged — into a new front of developing weapons with artificial intelligence represents an unprecedented and potentially controversial move. Although SpaceX is a traditional supplier to the defense sector and Musk is enthusiastic about advancing AI, he has publicly advocated restricting the creation of “new tools to kill people”.
Musk’s companies are among a restricted group selected to compete in the US$100 million tender launched in January, according to sources who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. The participation of SpaceX and xAI had not previously been disclosed.
SpaceX and xAI did not respond to requests for comment.
The six-month competition seeks to develop advanced swarm technology capable of converting voice commands into digital instructions and operating multiple drones simultaneously.
Although it is now possible to fly several drones at the same time, the development of software capable of coordinating them as a swarm, in operations at sea and in the air, with autonomous movement towards a target, is still a challenge. The bidding will advance in phases, depending on the performance and interest of participants, the sources said.
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The initiative was launched jointly by the Defense Innovation Unit, aimed at bringing Silicon Valley startups closer to the US Department of Defense, and by the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, a new arm created by the second Donald Trump administration within the US Special Operations Command. The group is partially continuing the Biden-era Replicator initiative, which sought to produce thousands of disposable autonomous drones.
The Defense Innovation Unit did not respond to a request for comment. US Special Operations Command, responsible for the DAWG, also declined to comment.
The project will be developed in five phases, starting with the creation of the software and moving on to field testing. A Department of Defense representative stated, in the January announcement, that the drones will have offensive use, highlighting that human-machine interaction “will directly impact the lethality and effectiveness of these systems.”
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Security credentials
xAI recently began a hiring spree to recruit engineers based in Washington or the West Coast with active U.S. security clearances at the “secret” or “top secret” levels, according to the company’s website. The company is looking for professionals with experience working with “government agencies, DoD or federal contractors in AI, software or data projects”, according to the vacancy announcement that foresees a selection process completed within a week.
In December, xAI said it had signed contracts with the Pentagon to integrate its Grok chatbot into government systems, with the aim of “empowering military and civilian personnel”. The company had already won a US$200 million contract with the Department of Defense to integrate its solutions with military systems.
Although it has been a defense contractor for years, SpaceX has focused on developing reusable rockets and satellites for space exploration, military communications and intelligence systems, not software for offensive weapons. The company, alongside Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., provides rockets to launch the Pentagon’s most sensitive satellites.
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Musk has previously advocated a ban on offensive autonomous weapons capable of selecting and attacking targets on their own, operating beyond significant human control.
In 2015, he signed an open letter from AI and robotics researchers warning of the risks of autonomous weapons.
xAI, founded by Musk in 2023, controls his AI startup, the social network X and the chatbot Grok. The company, which just weeks ago agreed to merge with SpaceX in a deal valued at $1.25 trillion, carries billions of dollars in debt, faces well-capitalized competitors and increased regulatory scrutiny after its chatbot disseminated sexualized images. It also generates significantly less revenue than SpaceX.
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When announcing the merger, Musk said in a statement on the SpaceX website that the acquisition of xAI would create “the most ambitious vertically integrated innovation engine on Earth and beyond, with AI, rockets, satellite internet, direct communications with mobile devices and the leading global platform for real-time information and freedom of expression”.
Musk did not mention the companies integrating to provide software supporting new weapons technologies. The new Pentagon project, however, will involve engineers and managers from both companies with this objective.
The first phase of the bidding will focus only on software development, before using real platforms. The system should coordinate the movement of drones in multiple domains, such as air and sea, according to the Pentagon’s description. Later phases include the development of “target-related situational awareness and sharing” and, finally, operations from “launch to completion.”
OpenAI supports a proposal presented by Applied Intuition, according to Bloomberg.
According to the proposal document reviewed by Bloomberg, OpenAI will limit its participation to the “mission control” element, converting voice commands and other instructions from battlefield commanders into digital commands. Its technology will not be used in operating the drone swarm, integrating weapons or defining targets.
An OpenAI spokesperson said that its open source technology was included in proposals from two partner companies and that the company will ensure that any use of its tools is in line with its usage policy.
SpaceX and xAI, on the other hand, must work together on the entire project, according to the sources.
The prospect of integrating chatbots and voice commands converted into text into weapons platforms has caused concern even among members of the defense sector, despite the Pentagon’s interest in accelerating the adoption of AI and autonomous systems. According to sources, it will be important to limit the use of generative AI to translating commands, without allowing it to control the behavior of drones.
Some stakeholders have expressed concerns about the risks of using generative AI to transform voice commands into operational decisions without human oversight.
The move comes amid the departure of employees from major AI labs who have expressed ethical concerns about the sector, while leading companies seek to increase revenues to fund research and development. They include an OpenAI researcher who questioned the presence of ads on ChatGPT and an Anthropic researcher who publicly resigned, raising broader concerns about the technology’s development.
Large-scale language models, which support chatbots such as ChatGPT, from OpenAI, are subject to biases and so-called “hallucinations”, when they generate responses without a factual basis, even if presented as reliable.
The Pentagon’s new AI Acceleration Strategy, released in January, seeks to “free up” AI agents for use on the battlefield, from planning military campaigns to defining targets, potentially involving lethal attacks.
Historically, defense contracts have generated controversy at consumer-facing technology companies. In 2018, Google employees protested against Project Maven, a Pentagon initiative that envisaged the use of AI to analyze drone images.
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