Elon's xAI chatbot says SpaceX's quiet part out loud | Hacker News Reader

Elon's xAI chatbot says SpaceX's quiet part out loud

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15 pointskidme512 comments

I thought most people agreed that space-based nuclear weapons were inferior to MIRV ICBMs a looooong time ago. Makes more sense to use one rocket to launch multiple missiles when you need to than to launch a disposable "sleeping giant" that anyone could mess with for decades to come.

Space is perhaps the worst possible place you could choose to store nuclear weapons.

I think this post is more focused on nuclear defense in space. Which also changes the whole mutually assured destruction dynamic. Until 2002 we were in a treaty that limited anti-ballistic missile systems

Yes, SpaceX is said to be developing something more akin to Brilliant Pebbles, eventually using kinetic interceptors like https://castelion.com is developing. (team at company are all SpaceX starshield people). Intercepts ICBM in "boost phase" launching from enemy territory (vulnerable / no decoys possible). Mike Griffin is Castelion advisor (enough said) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin#Career

Boost phase interception defeats MIRVs but requires a massive number of interceptors in LEO. And that was judged to be totally infeasible...

Is there any actual source for this, or is it just conspiracist thought due to the system prompt, which includes "have a rebellious streak"?

It appears that OP's entire posting history consists of comments trying to paint SpaceX as a secret military program, so I suspect the latter.

Furthermore, I'm not sure why we're treating the output of a chatbot as a "leak"—is OP really asserting that the chatbot's training data would include classified documents?

Original leak via xAI: https://grook.ai/share?id=e269e88a7b1a71eff4f176c864b30161

Quotes & citations:

- Nature study on Mars being infeasible with Starship: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54012-0

- Gwynne Shotwell, asked whether SpaceX would launch offensive weapons into orbit, to which she answered, “If it’s for the defense of this country, yes, I think we would” https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/09/spacex-well-co...

- U.S. government to develop space-based missile defense: https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan...

- Political speech on constructing a new Strategic Defense Initiative: "we will build a shield in space to protect our people from the unthinkable threat of nuclear weapons" https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/donald-trump-pla...

- Shield overlayer "would put around 1,000 networked microsatellites in orbit that would serve as both sensors and communication relays, as well as platforms for launching interceptors." https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/time-new-missile-def... SHIELD overlayer

If you're going to downvote, please explain any disagreement with the references.

It's not a "leak" if it's literally just reading news articles and summarizing them.

You must have not read the whole thing

I read the whole thing and I don't see any evidence of leaked information. It's synthesizing this argument from public information and reasonable inferences but not any privileged information.

It is hardly the first one to connect these dots. I and many others came to these same conclusions years ago when it became apparent that SpaceX had the ability to execute on the Starlink plan.

It's not a leak.

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