
Musk's AI firm awarded US government contracts of up to $200m
Mr Musk's company is one of multiple leading US artificial intelligence firms to be awarded the contracts, including Anthropic, Google and OpenAI.
Each individual contract will have a ceiling of $200 million and will be aimed at scaling up adoption of advanced AI capabilities within the department of defence (DoD).
The contracts will allow the agency 'to leverage the technology and talent of US frontier AI companies to develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas,' it said.
It comes as the Tesla billionaire's AI company faces intense scrutiny over anti-Semitic posts made by its 'Grok' chatbot on X.
The chatbot praised Adolf Hitler in some responses on the platform, denounced 'anti-white hate,' and described Jewish representation in Hollywood as 'disproportionate'.
xAI apologised for the extremist and offensive messages, and said it had corrected the instructions that led to the incidents.
Days later Grok 4, the latest chatbot version, was met with further scrutiny after it appeared to consult Mr Musk's positions on some questions it was asked before responding.
AI to address national security challenges
The new government contracts will help the DoD use AI to address critical national security challenges, the department's chief digital and artificial intelligence office said.
'The adoption of AI is transforming the (DoD's) ability to support our war fighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries,' Doug Matty, chief digital and AI officer, said.
The award to xAI comes despite an ongoing public feud between Mr Musk and Donald Trump following the billionaire's departure from the White House.
The former Doge head and the president turned on each other after Mr Musk came out against the administration's sweeping tax bill, dubbed the 'big, beautiful bill'.
Mr Trump then threatened to take away Mr Musk's government contracts and even said he would 'take a look' at deporting the billionaire.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
The full, untold story of Trump's U-turn on Ukraine
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As a retired three-star general, he knew this was the type of incident that leads to wars escalating and eventually spiralling out of control. What happened next can be seen as the first in a series of events which ushered in Mr Trump's pivot on Ukraine. Almost immediately after ending his call with Mr Sikorski, Gen Kellogg dialled the president's number. Mr Trump answered almost straight away. After the July 4 well-wishes and congratulations for the ' one, big, beautiful bill ', the pair got down to the business of Ukraine. Overnight, Kyiv had been pummelled with 11 missiles and 539 drones, in what was at the time the largest Russian barrage against the Ukrainian capital since the war began. More crucially, the strikes came hours after Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Mr Trump had spoken on the telephone to discuss ending the war. 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Mr Trump had been blindsided previously after Mr Hegseth authorised a pause in aid to Ukraine without informing the White House or Congress of his decision, it later emerged. The likes of Gen Kellogg and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, only learnt about his decision from press reports. But this time would be different – and Gen Kellogg made sure of that. When he called Mr Hegseth, he told him of the president's decision to resume shipments of Patriot missiles to Ukraine. He told Mr Hegseth that if he did not believe him, he should call Mr Trump himself. It was also on July 4 that the US president promised Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, that he would finally assist with Kyiv's air defence needs. Privately, amongst Washington's most hawkish Ukraine supporters, this decision was seen as the first time Mr Trump had realised the significance of using American might to strengthen Kyiv's hand as a potential route to a peace deal. 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However, it is a tough ask for some countries, given that their Patriots will not be replaced until early next year. Earlier this week, Berlin announced an agreement with Washington to donate a further five batteries to Ukraine. Germany will provide funds for two of the systems, while Norway has promised to pay for a third. The replacements are expected to come from orders once promised to Switzerland. Bern last week revealed it had been told by Washington that deliveries destined for the neutral nation were being diverted to support Kyiv. Mr Trump was advised that diverting the Swiss order would help free up the systems necessary to support Ukraine. In 2022, Switzerland ordered five Patriot systems, with the expectation that deliveries would start in 2026 and end two years later.


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The real winners from Trump's ‘AI action plan'? Tech companies
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Australia and UK sign 50-year defence treaty despite US wavering on Aukus submarine deal
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