Advocacy groups escalate fight over Grok in government after OneGov deal

Nearly two months after calling on the Office of Management and Budget to bar use of xAI’s Grok chatbot in government, a coalition of advocacy groups is pressing its case further after the General Services Administration struck a deal with Elon Musk’s AI company to deploy Grok across the federal government. 

In a letter sent Wednesday to OMB Director Russell Vought, the advocacy groups reiterated their concerns in the wake of the GSA OneGov deal, along with recent comments from Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. 

“OMB is entrusted with ensuring that AI systems procured by the federal government meet the highest standards of truth-seeking, accuracy and neutrality,” the letter, led by Public Citizen, stated. “Grok has repeatedly demonstrated failures in these areas and Director Kratsios himself has confirmed that such behavior is the precise type that Executive Order 14319 was designed to prevent.”

The letter refers to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in July that seeks to prevent “woke AI,” or ideological biases in models that are used by the federal government, 

The groups argued in their August letter to Vought that the use of Grok contradicts this order, given its past controversies with spewing antisemitic and pro-Hitler content. 

Weeks after the letter was sent, GSA inked a deal with xAI to offer Grok models to the government for a nominal cost. Under the deal, federal agencies can buy Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast for 42 cents until March 2027. The deal mimics that of other major AI vendors like OpenAI and Anthropic, which were selling their models to the government for $1 each. 

Wednesday’s letter states the OneGov deal raises “profound concerns,” including the contradiction of the ideological bias standards, and says GSA “at the very least” should publish its determination of its assessment of Grok. An agency official told FedScoop last month that GSA’s AI safety team determined Grok 4 met its guidelines after testing. 

The groups further argued the OneGov deal “provides Grok with a broad federal deployment path, despite bipartisan concern and public reporting on Grok’s antisemitic and conspiratorial behavior” and “creates a long-term federal commitment — until March 2027 — when its compliance with OMB guidance has not been demonstrated.” 

GSA and OMB did not respond to FedScoop’s request for comment by the time of publication. When reached for comment, xAI sent back an automatic reply stating “Legacy Media Lies.”

In his Senate confirmation hearing last week, Edward Forst, the nominee for GSA administrator, told lawmakers he was not privy to the decision-making behind the OneGov deal. Still, if confirmed, Forst signaled openness to looking into the process that led to the partnership.

The letter also surfaced newer comments from Kratsios, who fielded questions regarding Grok at a Senate hearing in September after the August letter was sent. 

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., asked the OSTP director why the administration has “not followed its own standards and guidance related to AI procurement.” 

“Having truth-seeking and accurate AI is something the president wrote about explicitly in the woke AI executive order. And that’s something that we take seriously, no matter what type of bias may be in that particular model,” Kratsios responded. 

Further pressed about Grok’s antisemitic content, Kratsios said, “Within that executive order, the president called for AI that the government procures to be truth-seeking and accurate.” 

The letter highlighted these comments and more from Kratsios, including a remark to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who asked if a generative AI system that stated it was intentionally trained on conservative ideology would violate the administration’s policy. 

Without getting into specifics, Kratsios said, “Yes, if the model wasn’t truth-seeking or accurate, it would violate the executive order.”

The advocacy groups contend this is Kratsios’ acknowledgment that Grok’s reported behavior “directly contradicts” the executive order.

Kratsios, the letter stated, “confirmed under questioning that the types of behavior reported from Grok — antisemitic responses, Holocaust denial, conspiratorial speech, and ideological bias — are precisely the conduct that the Trump Administration’s own executive order prohibits.” 

The groups requested that OMB issue immediate guidance suspending the federal deployment of Grok under the GSA contract until a full compliance determination is complete. They also asked OMB to publicly clarify whether Grok was evaluated for compliance with the executive order and to explain to Congress how the contract can be reconciled with the Trump administration’s standards.