Department of War Deploys Google Gemini AI as Core Military Tool

The U.S. Department of War has officially selected Google’s Gemini AI as the first enterprise artificial intelligence platform to be deployed across its internal systems, a stunning development that signals the military’s full-scale embrace of Big Tech and generative AI as a core part of its national security strategy.

The announcement came Monday, as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared that the department is “pushing all of our chips in on artificial intelligence as a fighting force.”

“The Department is tapping into America’s commercial genius,” Hegseth said. “We’re embedding generative AI into our daily battle rhythm.”

According to both Google and the Department of War, Gemini will be used to streamline unclassified administrative tasks, including:

• Summarizing complex policy handbooks

• Generating compliance checklists for operations

• Extracting key terms from mission documents

• Creating detailed risk assessments for battle planning

Google emphasized that Gemini for Government will operate in a secure, closed environment, with no data shared with public AI models a critical assurance given the sensitivities of military operations.

The Department is also launching GenAI.mil, its new platform for deploying “frontier AI capabilities,” and has stated that Gemini is only the first in a series of AI integrations to come.

This move follows the Biden White House’s AI Action Plan, which requires federal agencies to provide access to “frontier language models” for employees and to begin formal AI training programs. As part of compliance, the Department of War will be rolling out mandatory AI education across its workforce, aimed at increasing “confidence” in using generative models for day-to-day work.

While officials frame the rollout as merely administrative, the broader message is clear: AI is now officially part of the U.S. war machine.

“Gemini for Government is the embodiment of American AI excellence,” the Department of War said, “placing unmatched analytical and creative power directly into the hands of the world’s most dominating fighting force.”

The contract comes just nine days after Google was awarded a $200 million ceiling deal to support the department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. While the timing has raised eyebrows, neither Google nor the Department of War responded to questions about whether the Gemini deployment is directly tied to that contract.

Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is feeling the heat. A recent report from The Wall Street Journal revealed that Altman had issued a sweeping internal memo halting side projects like the Sora video generator to refocus efforts on improving ChatGPT, citing Google’s growing dominance in the AI space.

That dominance is no longer theoretical. The U.S. government under a Republican-led War Department is now putting Google’s AI in the driver’s seat of America’s military bureaucracy.

The stakes couldn’t be higher:

• Generative AI will now influence operational planning, risk analysis, and communications inside the military.

• The Department’s move sets the stage for AI integration into combat logistics, intelligence, and possibly future autonomous systems.

• The tech arms race between Google and OpenAI is now tied directly to national defense and warfare strategy.

While AI promises efficiencies, the concerns are real. What happens when mission-critical decisions are influenced by opaque algorithms created by Silicon Valley engineers with no military experience? How long before “unclassified administrative work” quietly expands into mission planning or strategic recommendations?

This isn’t just a tech update it’s a doctrinal shift in how America wages war.

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