Reuters reports that Elon Musk’s annoying chatbot, Grok, is now being used by the U.S. government. While the extent and nature of that usage is unclear, sources interviewed by the news outlet have expressed alarm at the implications of the chatbot’s access to government data.

snip

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team is now using a customized version of Grok, with the apparent goal of sorting and analyzing tranches of data. The team may also be using the chatbot to prepare reports, sources told the outlet.

Aside from the very obvious data privacy concerns raised by Grok’s integration with government data, it appears that, once again, Musk is at the center of a conflict-of-interest violation. In fact, Reuters characterizes the promotion of Grok as a potentially criminal transgression of federal regulations. The outlet writes:

If Musk was directly involved in decisions to use Grok, it could violate a criminal conflict-of-interest statute which bars officials — including special government employees — from participating in matters that could benefit them financially, said Richard Painter, ethics counsel to former Republican President George W. Bush and a University of Minnesota professor. “This gives the appearance that DOGE is pressuring agencies to use software to enrich Musk and xAI, and not to the benefit of the American people,” said Painter. The statute is rarely prosecuted but can result in fines or jail time.