Agriculture Department plans to use Grok, despite growing concerns over the chatbot (exclusive)

The USDA says it’s ‘proud’ to sponsor xAI’s chatbot for federal approval, even as officials hesitate over past controversies and failed safety reviews.

[Source Images: Grok and Pixabay]

Amid serious concerns about the safety and appropriateness of using xAI’s Grok chatbot within the U.S. government, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tells Fast Company that it’s “proud” to move forward with a new plan to use the chatbot at the agency for a range of applications.

The agency’s embrace of Grok marks a major win for xAI, whose chatbot has been plagued by scandal. Last year, the Trump administration announced a series of agreements with major AI companies, including xAI, to make top large language models available to government users at steep discounts. But as officials have moved to adopt models from Gemini and ChatGPT, many have remained wary of deploying Grok. The chatbot raised alarms last year after declaring itself MechaHitler and posting antisemitic responses on X. In........

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