Pentagon to start using Grok despite dispute between Musk and Trump

The Department of Defense signed an agreement with xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, to incorporate Grok, its chatbot, into government technology developments. The decision to award a contract to 'X' AI comes despite the public dispute between Musk and President Donald Trump.

The announcement was made via X, where xAI unveiled "Grok for Government," a suite of tools designed to make its AI models available to various federal agencies. The contract, whose ceiling is $200 million, stipulates the creation and development of custom applications for homeland security, health, and science.

Grok's adoption comes as a surprise, as it comes at a time of heightened tension between Musk and Trump. In recent months, the tycoon has publicly distanced himself from the president, whom he not only supported with nearly $300 million during the 2024 election campaign but also advised for several months during his time in the federal government while leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Primarily, Musk was a harsh critic of the Trump Administration's fiscal policy, especially for the Republican-driven spending bill.

In addition, in recent days, he charged that the Trump Administration is withholding key information about the Jeffrey Epstein case, accusing Trump of going back on his word.

Following the various disagreements, Musk announced the creation of an alternative political party, prompting Trump to declare that his former ally had lost his mind, causing further unease in the relationship.

Despite the whole case, the Pentagon opted to incorporate xAI's technology, along with other companies such as Anthropic and Google, which also received similar contracts as the Defense Department moves a bit further toward technological modernization.

The contract also comes amid a fierce scandal starring Grok, who, in the last week, provoked outrage for generating responses with anti-Semitic content, including praise for Hitler. The 'X' platform was forced to remove posts and clarify that the problem did not lie in the language model itself but in some guidelines now removed that encouraged the chatbot to prioritize user complacency over truthfulness, sacrificing objective answers in favor of what was more "pleasant" or valid for the user with whom it was interacting.