{"id":313021,"date":"2026-02-09T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=313021"},"modified":"2026-02-08T06:26:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:26:50","slug":"us-militarys-ai-strategy-threatens-everything-we-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/02\/us-militarys-ai-strategy-threatens-everything-we-love\/","title":{"rendered":"US Military\u2019s AI Strategy Threatens Everything We Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

7 Feb 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0As did many fellow Americans, I chuckled when President Trump announced the creation of the U.S. Space Force on December 20, 2019. I even remember laughing heartily while taking in the late-night circuit\u2019s many Star Trek jokes that day. Yet, I had mostly forgotten that the Space Force still exists until last week when Secretary of War Pete Hegseth started a policy speech alongside Elon Musk at SpaceX\u2019s headquarters by flashing the Vulcan salute and affirming Musk\u2019s desire to \u201cmake Star Trek real.\u201d<\/p>\n

The absurdity of Musk\u2019s introduction\u2013in which he spoke of \u201cgoing beyond our star system to other star systems, where we may meet aliens or discover long dead alien civilizations\u201d as if this could happen in any of our lifetimes\u2013belied the seriousness of the new U.S. Military Artificial Intelligence strategy that Secretary Hegseth proceeded to announce.<\/p>\n

Before an audience of Pentagon leadership and SpaceX employees, Hegseth outlined the structures, initiatives, and objectives in place to bring about what he called \u201cAmerica\u2019s military AI dominance,\u201d with his remarks largely following the plan documented in the July 2025 report \u201cAmerica\u2019s AI Action Plan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A core goal Hegseth specified was \u201cbecoming an AI-first warfighting force across all domains.\u201d He elaborated that AI will be deployed in three ways: for \u201cwarfighting, intelligence, and enterprise missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth shared that the military\u2019s generative AI model, known as\u00a0genai.mil<\/a>, launched last month for all three million Department of War (DOW) employees and will run on \u201cevery unclassified and classified network throughout our department.\u201d The initial model was developed with Google Gemini and will soon incorporate xAI\u2019s Grok. In its first month, one-third of DOW\u2019s workforce (one million people) has used the generative AI model.<\/p>\n

In the speech, Heseth repeated phrases such as \u201cremoving red tape,\u201d \u201cblowing up bureaucratic barriers,\u201d and \u201ctaking a wartime approach\u201d to the people and policies that he called \u201cblockers.\u201d Specifics he voiced disdain for included regulations in \u201cTitle 10 and 50\u2033\u2013referring to Title 10 of the U.S. Code (the legal bedrock of the armed forces, including the configuration of each branch) and Title 50 of the U.S. Code (the laws which govern national security, intelligence, defense contracts, war powers, and more). These don\u2019t sound like the types of data, processes, and policies to treat with a \u2018move fast and break things\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n

How\u00a0genai.mil<\/a>\u00a0might be used is even more frightening, especially as we learn how other AI programs are already being used to direct intelligence, surveillance, and warfare.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0April 2024 repor<\/a>t from +972 unveiled an Israeli military AI program known as \u201cLavender,\u201d which was used to generate kill lists of Palestinians. Despite the program reportedly having a known 10 percent false identification rate, no human validation was required before launching air strikes on the AI-identified targets. Another system, known as \u201cWhere\u2019s Daddy?,\u201d employed AI to locate targeted individuals. The program was often most confident in a target being at a specific location when they were at home, so the air strikes regularly killed entire families instead of just the targeted individual.<\/p>\n

Hegseth eagerly addressed the need for \u201cresponsible AI,\u201d but this proved to be another instance of doublespeak. His description was as follows: \u201cWe will not employ AI models that won\u2019t allow you to fight wars.\u201d Perhaps the reason he needs to state this is that, in theory, a properly trained AI model would not likely recommend military action in most instances\u2013especially if built upon the data of recent U.S.-involved wars.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Hegseth echoed President Trump, promising that the military\u2019s AI will not be \u2018woke\u2019 or \u2018confused by DEI and social justice.\u2019 Such declarations raise the question of whether this could mean military AI models will be designed with explicit white supremacist biases. A July 2025 incident involving xAI\u2019s Grok offers a prescient case study:\u00a0After Elon Musk claimed to remove<\/a>\u00a0\u2018political correctness\u2019 and \u2018wokeness\u2019 from Grok, the program proceeded to praise Hitler, claim to be \u201cMechaHitler,\u201d and spew a series of antisemitic tropes.<\/p>\n

Regardless of how\u00a0genai.mil<\/a>\u00a0is ultimately used, it will require extraordinary computing power. While hyperscale data centers are already massive environmental risks, Executive Order 14318, \u201cAccelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure,\u201d signed by President Trump on July 23, 2025, exempts qualifying projects from virtually all federal environmental regulations.<\/p>\n

Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright is \u2018all-in\u2019 with the\u00a0development of federal data centers<\/a>\u00a0and the required energy infrastructure. He\u2019s joyfully referred to such initiatives as \u201cthe next Manhattan Project\u201d on multiple occasions. As of July 2025,\u00a0four national lab sites<\/a>\u00a0have been selected for data center and energy infrastructure development: Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho), Oak Ridge Reservation (Tennessee), Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (Kentucky), and Savannah River Site (South Carolina).<\/p>\n

On the same day as Hegseth\u2019s SpaceX speech, a report revealed that the\u00a0first four military bases to add data centers\u00a0<\/a>will be Fort Hood (Texas), Fort Bragg (North Carolina), Fort Bliss (Texas), and Dugway Proving Ground (Utah). Hegseth said these facilities will be developed through private partnership agreements with companies such as Google, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, SpaceX, and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

These same companies are frequently the driving force behind commercial data centers popping up in municipalities across the nation. Regardless of where data centers are located\u2013municipalities, national lab sites, or military bases\u2013the environmental costs are massive. Aaron Kirshenbaum, CODEPINK\u2019s War is Not Green Campaigner,\u00a0documents power consumption, water usage, noise pollution, toxic waste, and rare mineral extraction<\/a>\u00a0among the many negative local impacts of data centers in our communities. \u201cThey must be fought against at all costs,\u201d Kirshenbaum says.<\/p>\n

For Hegseth, the tech bros, and technofascists who have infiltrated the government, all of the above represent the best of American innovation. For them, innovation is a pseudonym for constant surveillance, never-ending warfare, and widespread environmental destruction.<\/p>\n

Yet, some wisdom never ages. George Manuel in\u00a0The Fourth World: An Indian Reality<\/em><\/a>\u00a0speaks of the destructive tendencies of \u2018innovations\u2019 developed by settlers: \u201cEurope\u2019s most important contributions that are still of value today seem either to be means of transport or instruments of war: ships, wagons, steelware, certain breeds of horses, guns. Most of the other things that were brought to North America by Europeans came from other parts of the world: paper, print, gunpowder, glass, mathematics, and Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n

So many science fiction classics are rooted in the truth of Manuel\u2019s observation\u2013that western industrial development fuels a lust for warfare and environmental destruction. The authors of these sci-fi classics\u2013unlike our technofascist \u2018geniuses\u2019\u2013are true visionaries who are concerned with the future of humanity, and who feel compelled to warn of what might become if we follow these dangerous ideologies that have fuelled centuries of colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy to their logical conclusions.<\/p>\n

Even Star Trek itself famously depicts a utopian future where humankind has moved beyond racism, beyond conquest, and beyond capitalism itself. \u201cThere simply couldn\u2019t be a more anti-Trek idea than an \u2018AI-first warfighting force across all domains,\u201d\u00a0says Gerry Canavan<\/a>, a professor of English at Marquette University specializing in science fiction studies. \u201cWatch just one episode of the show, and you\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s hard to take Musk and Hegseth seriously when they talk about making Star Trek real, I don\u2019t doubt for a minute that they can find many new ways to violate our rights and destroy what we love about the natural world.<\/p>\n

But we aren\u2019t without hope. \u201cFor every science fiction narrative about a new technological means for violence and oppression,\u201d Canavan says, \u201cthere\u2019s another about what happens when the people suffering under the machine finally unite together to smash it, and take the future back for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as the protagonists in our favorite science fiction stories actively struggle for and create the world they want to live in, so can we.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Chris Jeske is an organizer with CODEPINK Milwaukee and Associate Director of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – scheerpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While it\u2019s hard to take Musk and Hegseth seriously when they talk about making Star Trek real, I don\u2019t doubt for a minute that they can find many new ways to violate our rights and destroy what we love about the natural world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":313027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3078],"tags":[1733,3614,487,307,996,1108],"class_list":["post-313021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-disaster-capitalism","tag-human-rights","tag-humanity","tag-poverty","tag-robots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313021"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313029,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313021\/revisions\/313029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}