“Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department,” Hegseth said in a speech at Musk’s space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas.

The announcement comes just days after Grok — which is embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk — drew global outcry and scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent.

Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok, while the U.K.’s independent online safety watchdog announced an investigation Monday. Grok has limited image generation and editing to paying users.

Hegseth said Grok will go live inside the Defense Department later this month and announced that he would “make all appropriate data” from the military’s IT systems available for “AI exploitation.” He also said data from intelligence databases would be fed into AI systems.

Hegseth’s aggressive push to embrace the still-developing technology stands in contrast to the Biden administration, which, while pushing federal agencies to come up with policies and uses for AI, was also wary of misuse.

Officials said rules were needed to ensure that the technology, which could be harnessed for mass surveillance, cyberattacks or even lethal autonomous devices, was being used responsibly.

The Biden administration enacted a framework in late 2024 that directed national security agencies to expand their use of the most advanced AI systems but prohibited certain uses, such as applications that would violate constitutionally protected civil rights or any system that would automate the deployment of nuclear weapons. It is unclear if those prohibitions are still in place under the Trump administration.

During his speech, Hegseth spoke of the need to streamline and speed up technological innovations within the military, saying, “We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.”

He noted that the Pentagon possesses “combat-proven operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations.”

“AI is only as good as the data that it receives, and we’re going to make sure that it’s there,” Hegseth said.

The defense secretary said he wants AI systems within the Pentagon to be responsible, though he went on to say he was shrugging off any AI models “that won’t allow you to fight wars.”

Hegseth said his vision for military AI systems means that they operate “without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications,” before adding that the Pentagon’s “AI will not be woke.”

Musk developed and pitched Grok as an alternative to what he called “woke AI” interactions from rival chatbots like Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In July, Grok also caused controversy after it appeared to make antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler and shared several antisemitic posts.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the issues with Grok.

In a memo dated March 6 and released publicly Friday, Hegseth directs all DOD components to use the Pentagon’s Software Acquisition Pathway, as well as other authorities created to leverage commercial capabilities — all in an effort to speed up the process for fielding software-heavy systems.

“The Department of Defense has been slow to recognize that software-defined warfare is not a future construct, but the reality we find ourselves operating in today,” Hegseth said in the memo, which is addressed to all senior Pentagon leaders, combatant commanders and field activity directors. “When it comes to software acquisition, we are overdue in pivoting to a performance-based outcome and, as such, it is the warfighter who pays the price.”

Senior defense officials told reporters Friday the memo is the first of what will likely be a series of steps from Hegseth, who has said on several occasions he wants to change the way the military buys and builds both software and hardware. The officials requested anonymity to speak freely about the secretary’s guidance.

The Defense Department created the Software Acquisition Pathway in 2020 as the recommended approach for buying software. The pathway offers a tailored acquisition mechanism, recognizing that software can’t, and shouldn’t, be procured under the same process as an aircraft or ship.

DOD program offices adopted the approach fairly broadly, and today 82 programs representing each of the military services are using the pathway to buy a range of capabilities — from command-and-control systems to cyber. The problem, according to one official, is that the pathway hasn’t been combined with other authorities designed to attract and take advantage of commercial capabilities.

Those authorities include an approach championed by the Defense Innovation Unit called a Commercial Solutions Opening, a type of solicitation that allows startups and non-traditional defense companies to sell products and services to DOD. DIU also leverages a contracting tool called Other Transaction awards, which isn’t subject to the same regulations as a standard contract and allows the government to award contracts on faster timelines.

As part of Hegseth’s memo requiring use of the Software Acquisition Pathway, he calls for acquisition organizations to make Commercial Solutions Openings and Other Transaction contracting approaches “the default” for buying capabilities.

“Department components are prohibited from implementing further guidance on this point that would set out restrictive measures, guidelines, frameworks, directives or policies other than required by statute,” he said.

The under secretary of acquisition and sustainment, as well as DIU — because of its experience with these tools — will craft an implementation plan over the next month.

DIU expects to see an uptick in the number of program offices wanting to work with the organization to procure software using these methods, one official said. As part of the implementation plan, the department will identify what resources DIU will need to support the increased workload and help train acquisition officials on how to use these authorities.

“The combination of DIU innovation with acquisition modernization is creating a streamlined mechanic to both deliver capability fast and simultaneously open up the industry base to a broader audience,” one official said.