Jonathan Kitchen
Elon Musk’s DOGE is expanding the use of his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok in the U.S. federal government to analyze data, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources.
Such use of Grok may heighten concerns among privacy advocates and others that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is disregarding long-standing safeguards for handling sensitive data, as President Donald Trump continues to overhaul the U.S. bureaucracy, the report said.
One of the three people familiar with the matter, who has knowledge of DOGE’s activities, said Musk’s team was using a customized version of the Grok chatbot. The apparent aim was for DOGE to sift through data more efficiently, this person said.
“They ask questions, get it to prepare reports, give data analysis.”
The second and third person said DOGE staff also told Department of Homeland Security officials to use it, even though Grok had not been approved within the department.
It was not clear as to what specific data that had been fed into the generative AI tool or how the custom system was set up.
Grok was developed by xAI, a tech operation that Musk launched in 2023 on his social media platform, X.
It could also give the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX (SPACE) CEO access to valuable nonpublic federal contracting data at agencies he privately does business with, or be used to help train Grok, a process in which AI models analyze troves of data, the experts said.
Musk could also gain an unfair competitive advantage over other AI service providers from use of Grok in the federal government, they added.
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