The War Department says about 1.7 million people are now using artificial intelligence tools across the department. Officials shared the figure on Sept. 30 during GenAI.mil Excite Day at the Pentagon.
Deya Banisakher is the acting director for Frontier AI at the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. He also manages the GenAI.mil program.
He said anyone with a common access card can use three AI platforms. They are Google's Gemini, Starshield AI's Grok for Government and OpenAI's ChatGPT Mil.
Banisakher said the department's models are now close to matching commercial versions. "We started releasing models on the same day as public releases," he said.
AI Tools Speed Up Work Across the Department
Banisakher said the tools help people research, summarize and pull information from large amounts of data. He said AI is saving billions of man-hours.
Service members can also write software applications quickly. Graphic designers, operations researchers, and acquisition and finance staff are using the tools too.
He gave one example from the Navy. A coding project would normally take developers two to three years and cost more than $10 million.
Three Navy developers used GenAI.mil to modernize that code in 30 days.
Jonathan Buchanan is the authorizing official for the GenAI.mil platforms. He said the three platforms had a soft launch so the department could test them for scale, security and performance.
"I think we're just scratching the surface with what is totally possible with these platforms," Buchanan said.
Grok and ChatGPT Mil See Fast Growth
Gerard Connolly, a Grok for Government technician at Starshield AI, said Grok focuses on four features. Users can build teams and share work, and automations handle set tasks and give timely updates.
A projects mode lets teams upload files and work together in one space. A skills mode quickly creates routine documents such as executive summaries and battlefield updates.
More than 300,000 department users have used Grok since it launched last month. Connolly said he expects that number to grow.
ChatGPT Mil launched at the same time and has similar user numbers. Jonathan Bal, who leads OpenAI's War Department portfolio, said this shows users are staying and finding value in the product.
Gemini for Government launched in December 2025 and was the first AI platform used across the department. Joshua Marcuse of Google Public Sector said staff use it for coding, chip design, hiring, finance, cybersecurity and spotting insider threats.
The department's next step is to bring AI to its classified networks. That includes the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System.
