Billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team is quietly expanding the deployment of his Grok AI chatbot across U.S. federal agencies, potentially violating privacy laws and creating significant conflicts of interest, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The DOGE team, established by President Donald Trump via Executive Order 14158 in January 2025, is using a customized version of Grok to analyze government data, prepare reports, and conduct data analysis. Sources indicate that DOGE staff have even pressured Department of Homeland Security officials to adopt the AI tool despite it lacking formal departmental approval.
"Given the scale of data that DOGE has amassed and given the numerous concerns of porting that data into software like Grok, this to me is about as serious a privacy threat as you get," said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit that advocates for privacy.
Privacy experts warn that feeding sensitive government information into Grok could violate security laws and potentially give Musk access to valuable nonpublic federal contracting data at agencies where his companies do business. There are also concerns that government data could be used to train Grok, giving xAI an unfair competitive advantage over other AI providers.
The controversy comes amid DOGE's broader efforts to reshape the federal government. Since January, Musk's team has overseen the firing of thousands of federal workers, seized control of sensitive data systems, and sought to dismantle multiple agencies in the name of combating waste and fraud.
DOGE's initial savings goal of $2 trillion has been repeatedly downgraded, most recently to $150 billion. In May 2025, Musk announced plans to scale back his involvement with DOGE, coinciding with Tesla's declining stock performance and growing public scrutiny of his government role.
A DHS spokesperson denied that DOGE had pushed employees to use Grok, stating, "DOGE hasn't pushed any employees to use any particular tools or products. DOGE is here to find and fight waste, fraud and abuse." The White House, Musk, and xAI did not respond to requests for comment.