The U.S. Department of Defense launched GenAI.mil on Tuesday, marking the first time Google’s government-specific version of Gemini has been integrated into a new platform for military use.
The move comes as the Pentagon accelerates its initiative to deploy artificial intelligence across its forces, intensifying the technological rivalry between the United States and China in next-generation defense capabilities.
This rollout follows the federal government’s AI Action Plan issued in July, which directed agencies to speed up adoption of advanced AI systems.
Officials stated that AI tools have already been installed on desktops within the Pentagon and at military installations worldwide, forming the foundation of what the department describes as an “AI-first” workforce.
“The future of American warfare is here—and it’s AI,” said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a video statement posted on X. “As technology advances, so do our adversaries. But at the Department of Defense, we won’t stand by.”
With an Impact Level 5 (IL5) authorization allowing Gemini to handle sensitive but unclassified Department of Defense data, Google noted that this deployment will grant over 3 million civilian and military personnel access to the same cutting-edge AI tools used by enterprises to streamline administrative tasks and boost productivity.
“This is a significant step forward in accelerating AI adoption across the public sector—all hosted on Google’s secure and reliable infrastructure,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a statement.
The U.S. military is making substantial investments to apply AI on future battlefields, including requesting $1.8 billion in its 2025 budget for AI and machine learning initiatives and collaborating with defense agencies to rapidly acquire state-of-the-art commercial models.
The Pentagon’s use of Gemini coincides with a shift in stance among major AI firms—including Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and Google—regarding military applications of their models.
In February, Google removed language from its “Google AI Principles” that previously barred the use of its AI technologies in “weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people.”
Oversight groups have warned against the federal government’s rapid adoption of AI. On Monday, the Center for Democracy & Technology cautioned that agencies are deploying general-purpose AI models without sufficient testing or oversight, risking errors, wasted spending, and public harm.
“By rushing to deploy AI tools at scale without adequate testing, oversight, and support, the Trump administration risks not only significant disruption across federal agencies but also unleashing a floodgate of failed AI projects that could undermine agency missions, waste taxpayer dollars, harm the public, and further entrench vendor lock-in,” wrote Quinn Annesley-Rees, a senior policy analyst at the organization.
Google emphasized that military data will not be used to train its public-facing models. The system is designed to simplify tasks such as onboarding, contract management, and policy analysis, with plans to integrate additional models as the department expands its AI capabilities.
“Building on the outstanding work of Deputy Secretary Emil Michael and his team, we will continue to aggressively deploy the world’s best technology to make our fighting force more lethal than ever before—all of it made in America,” Hegseth said. “The possibilities with AI are endless.”
