On the heels of the hottest summer on record and a United Nations report warning that global temperatures are likely to push climate risks to “increasingly dangerous heights,” the Trump administration overturned most of a Biden-era rule limiting climate pollution from power plants, the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a final plan Monday that guts the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which the agency said exceeds its authority under the Clean Air Act by requiring control technologies “that are not adequately demonstrated.” The agency also proposed revoking “all remaining GHG emissions requirements for power plants,” arguing their emissions “have no material impact on climate change.”
The plan to revoke the Carbon Pollution Standards was initially revealed last spring.
On the heels of the hottest summer on record and a United Nations report warning that global temperatures are likely to push climate risks to “increasingly dangerous heights,” the Trump administration overturned most of a Biden-era rule limiting climate pollution from power plants, the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a final plan Monday that guts the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which the agency said exceeds its authority under the Clean Air Act by requiring control technologies “that are not adequately demonstrated.” The agency also proposed revoking “all remaining GHG emissions requirements for power plants,” arguing their emissions “have no material impact on climate change.”
The plan to revoke the Carbon Pollution Standards was initially revealed last spring.
Amazon’s artificial intelligence ambitions will soon be partly fueled by a natural gas-burning power plant in Texas that “could become the largest single source of climate pollution in the United States,” The New York Times reported.
These gas-burning plants are increasingly lumped into data center projects. They produce harmful pollutants, which can accelerate climate change impacts and harm public health—contributing to conditions like asthma, heart disease, lung cancer, and strokes. Some communities are demanding more stringent environmental reviews, but the Trump administration favors fast-tracking that can include skipping the permitting process entirely.
Welcome to this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief… in a recent sworn statement, it was revealed that the Pentagon has reportedly leveraged Elon Musk’s xAI to assist in the launch of as many as 2,000 munitions in the recent U.S. war with Iran. In our coverage, we’ll be looking at 1) how the recent revelations were brought to light in a lawsuit focused on possible violations of the Clean Air Act, 2) how a “frontier” AI chatbot became key part of the Pentagon’s military efforts, and 3) why lawmakers are sounding alarms over the potential misuse of AI systems, and the need for ensuring their safe use while restricting major decisions to human operators.
Quote of the Week
“We must act now—not to stifle technological progress, but to establish clear rules of the road that keep humans in charge and keep AI’s use in warfare smart and safe.”
– U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
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Musk’s AI Chatbot Helped U.S. Forces Fire Missiles
This week, as an initial deal aiming to end the U.S. war with Iran comes to fruition, it was revealed that thousands of missiles launched by the U.S. were fired by Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot.
The revelation emerged as part of a sworn statement pushing to protect the military’s use of Musk’s AI systems that could be impacted by a lawsuit, which alleges his xAI data centers are contributing to illegal pollution in black communities.
The statement, made by Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, states that Musk’s AI chatbot helped to facilitate the deployment of “over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury,” which Stanley called “a testament to the greatly increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov Model.”
A “Frontier” AI Chatbot
In Stanley’s sworn statement this week, the Pentagon official tasked with overseeing the Department of War’s use of AI wrote that xAI’s Grok is one of just four proprietary AI models “capable of supporting national security applications.”
Stanley wrote that xAI also “remains one of just three enterprise providers equipped to sustain mission-critical operations across Secret and Top-Secret classified networks for the foreseeable future due to the enormous resources required for initial certification.”
“DoW currently relies on derivatives of xAl’s commercial offerings known as the Grok Gov Model,” according to Stanley, who goes on to note in his statement that the AI chatbot has been deployed in systems that include Maven Smart Systems, where it assists in supporting “vital national security missions, including targeting, intelligence, readiness, and recruitment,” and also aids in a range of other military tasks.
“The Grok Gov Model offers features unique to xAI that are found in no other frontier Al model,” Stanley wrote. As an illustration of its capability, Stanley then made the chilling revelation of just how involved in military activities the xAI chatbot has recently become.
Grok Goes to War
“To further illustrate the uses of the Grok Gov Model within DoW, MSS frontier workflows enabled U.S. forces to deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury, a testament to the greatly increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov Model,” Stanley wrote in his testimony.
As reported by The Independent, the sworn statement provided by Stanley appears to represent the first confirmation by an official within the Trump Administration that Elon Musk’s AI is being used to control U.S. weapons used against Iran.
Since the conflict began in February, the Trump administration has faced scrutiny over U.S.-led attacks that have resulted in civilian deaths, with mounting questions over the military’s use of AI during the conflict.
In an analysis by the Lieber Institute at West Point, Jessica Dorsey and Luke Moffett noted that AI systems “are frequently framed as ushering in an era of unprecedented precision and efficiency in warfare,” but in reality, issues that include recent figures involving as many as 1,700 civilian deaths as of May 2026 “calls that narrative into serious question.”
“CENTCOM claimed it was generating 1,000 targets per hour,” Moffett and Dorsey wrote, adding that while “such capabilities are often framed as enhancing precision… they also introduce new layers of abstraction between decision-makers and the consequences of their actions.”
Pending Court Rulings Could Impact the Pentagon’s AI Use
The U.S. Department of Justice has argued that a pending court ruling could significantly impact the Pentagon’s use of AI if it is prevented from deploying xAI across its systems.
In an effort to prevent such setbacks, the Trump administration has requested that a lawsuit launched by the NAACP be dismissed by a Mississippi-based federal judge. The lawsuit claims that Musk’s xAI Colossus 2 data center, which relies on several dozen gas-powered turbines, is operating in violation of the Clean Air Act. Presently, the turbines are being operated without permits, the lawsuit asserts.
In his sworn statement this week, Stanley called Musk’s xAI systems a “long-term strategic tool vital to maintaining our technological advantage against adversaries.”
However, opponents of such measures in Washington argue that new regulations must help to ensure that crucial military decisions—especially those which impact human lives—must also be made by humans.
“The most critical decisions affecting our national security and the lives of our service members must always be made by human beings, not unaccountable machines,” wrote U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY) in a statement earlier in June.
Gillibrand also recently introduced a bill that aims to restrict military decisions that could potentially impact human lives to human operators, and to implement a ban on AI in governing the use of nuclear weapons, as well as autonomous weapons capabilities and domestic surveillance.
In her statement this month, Gillibrand argued that the Pentagon “is moving toward deploying incredibly powerful AI technology without commonsense guardrails in place, which could have catastrophic consequences that make all of us less safe.”
“We must act now—not to stifle technological progress, but to establish clear rules of the road that keep humans in charge and keep AI’s use in warfare smart and safe,” Gillibrand added.
The department cited national security concerns, saying Elon Musk’s company had played a crucial role in the Iran war. It also argued it has the authority to stop environmental lawsuits brought by citizens.
The department cited national security concerns, saying Elon Musk’s company had played a crucial role in the Iran war. It also argued it has the authority to stop environmental lawsuits brought by citizens.
The department cited national security concerns, saying Elon Musk’s company had played a crucial role in the Iran war. It also argued it has the authority to stop environmental lawsuits brought by citizens.
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