DOJ defends xAI's gas turbines, claiming Grok is deployed on classified networks for military targeting

a little tidbit that didn't make it into my story: according to the DOJ's filings, employees using specific AI tools in the department consume almost 2 billion tokens per day (!)

while i reported last month that xAI had added more than 20 turbines to its site in a matter of weeks, new emails revealed last week show that the company has added even more since I wrote that story — there were 57 turbines onsite as of mid-May

these additional turbines, according to the @selc_org , means the site has seen a 111% increase in nitrogen oxide emissions, a 83% increase in PM2.5 emissions, and an 88% increase in formaldehyde emissions since April

in the filing, the DOJ claims Grok was used recently in Operation Epic Fury, and that the lawsuit "threatens American national, economic, and energy security"

@mollytaft “Grok is vial for national security” Yeah, there’s no saving this country. We are fucked.

@mollytaft Ah, yes, the AI that described itself as "Mecha Hitler", and repeatedly lies (as programmed) to make the GOP and Elon Musk look better and to spread white Christian nationalism is "vital for national security" now that we voluntarily shoved it into all our government software.

@mollytaft why even have laws

@mollytaft @personofswag remember what i said about data center slowdown not being on the table?

@mollytaft the CSAM-generating hitler robot is vital for national security

@mollytaft How will we bomb elementary schools without Grok's help?

@mollytaft https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.msnd.52261/gov.uscourts.msnd.52261.59.0.pdf

@mollytaft Grok is vital.... Fucking hell...

@mollytaft Who or what is telling who that this is the right "legal" "Whose Security" decision. National security is the end all and be all of catch phrases. In the name of national security therefore I am ----sprung into existence said the AGI.

@mollytaft What the fuck

@tautologer @mollytaft i need to update my priors

@mollytaft Interesting his Grok is vital for national security, but protestors are jailed for free speech. We live in a backwards country

@mollytaft @zeynep This shows why it could be very hard to shut down a very smart but out-of-control AI: governments won't let you.

@mollytaft That is genuinely not that many tokens. I remember i had a misconfigured openclaw instance in feb that i left running and it used 1b over a week with free models. The scary thing is WHAT they are trying to do with the models themselves

@mollytaft Wow everything about this is terrible

@mollytaft Wtf