Senator Elizabeth Warren Reportedly Questions Pentagon AI Contracting Amid Reports Of Elon Musk’s Grok Use In US Agencies

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is reportedly pressuring the Department of Defense to ensure competitive bidding for artificial intelligence (AI) contracts, citing the risks of vendor lock-in, as Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok sees increased use across federal agencies.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Warren called for safeguards in the Pentagon’s AI acquisition practices to avoid excessive reliance on any one provider.

“I seek to ensure that the DoD’s procurement decisions encourage competition and avoid consolidation that can lead to higher prices, concentration of risk, and the stifling of innovation,” Warren wrote, according to Reuters.

While the letter did not mention Grok or its developer xAI by name, it follows reports that DOGE, the Defense Operations for Government Efficiency team, has been using a modified version of Grok to analyze data. 

The chatbot is reportedly being promoted for broader adoption within federal departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, despite not having received formal approval.

Warren requested that the Pentagon explain by June 9 how it plans to prevent vendor lock-in and protect sensitive government data from being used to train commercial AI models. 

“How does DoD plan to ensure government data is not used to illegally train commercially available AI algorithms?” she asked.

Grok competes with products from OpenAI and Anthropic in a fast-moving market where government use is drawing increasing scrutiny. 

The use of Grok has raised concerns over conflicts of interest, given Musk’s business ties and his growing influence in government-facing technology.

The Grok (GROK) meme coin, inspired by xAI’s Grok AI but with no formal link to xAI or any underlying utility, has traded flat over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Grok’s price is down more than 80% over the past year.

The iShares US Aerospace and Defence ETF (ITA) edged 0.4% higher in midday trade on Wednesday amid weakness in the broader market.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) fell 0.19%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) was down 0.27%. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, traded flat.

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Read also: Telegram Strikes $300M Partnership With Elon Musk’s xAI To Integrate Grok Chatbot, Toncoin Jumps