Billionaire Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, is reportedly being used within segments of the U.S. federal government, raising red flags about potential conflicts of interest and data privacy violations. According to sources familiar with the matter, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team has implemented Grok to analyze and process sensitive government data, despite a lack of formal approval in certain agencies.
Insiders claim DOGE is utilizing a modified version of Grok to generate reports, analyze data, and answer complex queries for internal use. Some officials were reportedly encouraged by DOGE to adopt Grok at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), even though the AI tool hadn’t received clearance for use in the department. DHS denied these claims, stating DOGE had not pushed any specific tool for adoption.
Developed by Musk’s xAI initiative, Grok is hosted on the social media platform X and offers advanced generative AI capabilities. However, ethics experts warn that integrating such tools with federal databases could expose sensitive information and potentially offer Musk’s companies an unfair edge in government contracting. The use of unapproved AI tools for analyzing private or classified data may violate federal laws concerning privacy and security.
There are also concerns that DOGE’s use of Grok could help xAI train its model using federal data, a process that could benefit the company financially while risking citizen privacy. Some experts argue that if Musk had a direct role in advocating Grok’s government use, it might breach statutes that prohibit federal officials from participating in matters where they hold a financial stake.
Further complicating matters, sources allege DOGE has been seeking access to federal employees’ communications, potentially to assess political alignment, raising civil liberties and labor law issues. Meanwhile, Department of Defense employees were recently informed that an algorithm may be monitoring their activities, though it remains unclear if Grok or DOGE were involved.
Musk’s DOGE initiative has previously been linked to efforts aimed at reducing inefficiencies and redundancies within the federal government. While Musk has pledged to reduce his involvement to part-time, his team’s continued use of AI tools like Grok suggests a broader agenda to reshape government operations through automation.
As Grok gains ground within government systems, watchdogs are calling for increased transparency, regulation, and ethical oversight to prevent abuse, ensure data integrity, and maintain a clear separation between public service and private enterprise interests.
