
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is questioning the Pentagon’s decision to deploy the artificial intelligence model developed by Elon Musk, the former senior advisor to President Donald Trump, and provide the model access to sensitive government information.
The Pentagon has awarded a $200 million contract to xAI, a company owned by Elon Musk, who largely helped lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year before departing the federal government in May, for the use of “Grok,” the company’s AI chatbot.
“As Secretary of Defense, you are responsible for protecting highly sensitive and classified information, procuring the best tools through a competitive acquisition process, and ensuring that every servicemember is treated with dignity and respect,” Sen. Warren said in a letter sent on Sept. 10 to Pete Hegseth.
Grok, which has previously generated misinformation and offensive, antisemitic language, “could harm DoD’s strategic decision-making,” warned Sen. Warren.
Specifically, the senator pointed to various instances where the chatbot failed to provide correct dates and information on basic tests, and that the chatbot was in part trained on social media posts made to X, where Musk had asked users to help train Grok on “things that are politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true.”
Sen. Warren added that Musk’s company failed to build in safeguards that prevented Grok from generating hateful language.
While four companies in total were awarded contracts for their AI systems – including Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI – in July, Sen. Warren said that the award given to xAI posed “unique concerns.”
Among concerns about accuracy and hateful output, Sen. Warren wrote that “Mr. Musk and his companies may be improperly benefitting from the unparalleled access to DoD data and information that he obtained while leading the Department of Government Efficiency.”
She requested details from Hegseth by Sept. 24 on whether officials ever discussed the xAI contract with Musk while he was employed by the federal government, whether the contract underwent a special review by DOGE, xAI’s scope of work, how Grok will fit into Pentagon operations, and who is accountable for any operational or security failures caused by Grok.