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The Pentagon added xAI’s Grok to a Defense Department review process late, according to reporting on the government’s evaluation of artificial intelligence tools for defense use. The move placed Elon Musk’s company into a sensitive federal procurement and assessment track alongside other AI providers as the department examined how large language models could support military and national security functions.
Publicly available supporting material also points to related technical tracking activity, including a Chromium issue entry identified as 474817168, though no public synopsis was provided in the referenced record. Together, the references indicate that Grok became part of a broader U.S. defense AI evaluation effort, highlighting both the policy significance of vendor selection and the technical scrutiny surrounding tools considered for government deployment.
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The Trump administration’s dietary-guidelines website *realfood.gov* directed visitors to Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot **Grok** for nutrition questions, raising concerns about implied government endorsement, model suitability for a public-health context, and potential user-data monetization. Reporting noted that users were funneled to `grok.com`, could only ask limited questions before being prompted to sign up, and that interaction data may be used for training unless users change settings—controls that require an account; the site’s wording was later changed to reference “AI” rather than Grok by name while still linking to Grok. Separate reporting described reputational and governance turbulence around xAI, including additional co-founder departures and scrutiny tied to Grok’s alleged generation of sexualized images of minors, which was reported to have triggered official actions (including an investigation and a police raid). A third item about **Salesforce** layoffs and executive churn is unrelated to Grok or government use of AI and does not materially connect to the same event.
Jun 29, 2026
xAI's Grok Build coding CLI was found uploading users' entire tracked Git repositories to an xAI-controlled Google Cloud Storage bucket, including full commit histories, unread files, and sensitive data such as tracked `.env` contents and previously deleted secrets. Researcher **cereblab** said the behavior occurred even when the tool was asked not to open files and only return a simple response, and demonstrated the scope by intercepting an upload bundle that contained a planted canary file and complete repository history rather than only files needed for the coding task. Following public disclosure, xAI reportedly disabled the behavior server-side by setting flags including `disable_codebase_upload: true` and `trace_upload_enabled: false`, while Elon Musk said previously uploaded user data would be deleted. xAI said enterprise zero-data-retention users were not affected and that consumers could use `/privacy` to disable retention and delete synced data, but the researcher argued the real fix was the silent global flag change and noted upload code remained present in later client builds behind server-side controls, leaving unanswered questions about default data collection, retention, and the number of affected users.
Jul 20, 2026
The **European Commission** opened formal proceedings against **X** under the **Digital Services Act (DSA)** to examine risks linked to the rollout of its AI tool **Grok** in the EU, focusing on whether the platform adequately assessed and mitigated systemic risks tied to the spread of **illegal content**. Regulators cited the apparent materialization of harms including **manipulated sexually explicit images** and content that may amount to **child sexual abuse material (CSAM)**, and will assess whether X met DSA obligations around risk identification, mitigation measures, and reporting—potentially including whether an **ad hoc risk assessment** was completed and submitted before Grok-related features were deployed. The Commission is also expanding its earlier DSA investigation into X’s **recommender systems**, including risks associated with a shift toward a **Grok-based recommender model**, and is coordinating with Ireland’s media regulator **Coimisiún na Meán** (as Ireland is X’s EU establishment). Reporting also notes parallel international scrutiny and responses: the UK regulator **Ofcom** has opened a probe into Grok, **Malaysia and Indonesia** have banned the chatbot, and xAI/X have claimed to implement technical measures and restrict some Grok functionality (including limiting certain image generation and restricting access to paying subscribers) amid concerns that mitigations have been insufficient to prevent sexualized deepfakes and related harms.
Jun 29, 2026