Grok Goes to Washington: xAI Lands 42-Cent Federal Deal for 18 Months

xAI's Grok Heads to Federal Agencies: What You Need to Know

Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has reached an agreement with the General Services Administration (GSA) that allows federal agencies to use its chatbot, Grok, for a total cost of 42 cents over the next 18 months.

As part of the deal, xAI engineers will support agencies with implementation. Musk said he looks forward to working with President Trump's team to deploy AI across the government.

The Deal at a Glance

• Cost: $0.42 total per agency for 18 months of access.
• Channel: Agreement managed through the GSA.
• Support: xAI engineers will help agencies integrate and configure tools.
• Scope: Access to Grok chatbot capabilities; details will vary by agency environment and policy.

Immediate Actions for Agency Leaders

• Pick low-risk use cases first: drafting, summarizing public materials, knowledge search on non-sensitive policies, meeting notes, basic code assistance in a sandbox.
• Set data rules: prohibit entry of classified, CUI, PII, HIPAA, and procurement-sensitive information unless authorized in writing.
• Confirm compliance path: coordinate with the CIO, CISO, Privacy, Records, and GC on ATO needs, data residency, logging, and records retention.
• Accessibility: ensure Section 508 conformance for any end-user interface.
• Procurement check: verify ordering procedures under the GSA agreement and any agency-specific approvals.

Risk Controls to Put in Place

• Human-in-the-loop: require human review for outputs used in decisions or public communications.
• Content safeguards: implement prompts, filters, and refusal policies aligned to agency standards.
• Testing: red-team the model with agency-relevant scenarios; monitor for bias, hallucinations, and security leaks.
• Logging and audit: capture prompts, outputs, and approvals; retain per records schedules and FOIA obligations.

Implementation Checklist (Pilot-Friendly)

• Form a cross-functional pilot team (program, IT/security, privacy, legal, records, 508).
• Define success metrics (time saved, accuracy, error rate, rework, user satisfaction).
• Draft concise SOPs for acceptable use, data handling, and escalation.
• Stand up a controlled environment with role-based access and clear prompt guidance.
• Provide short training for users and approvers; require quick-start job aids.
• Start with 1-2 workflows, run a 30-60 day pilot, and report outcomes.

Suggested Government Use Cases

• Summarize RFI responses and public comments (human-reviewed).
• Create first drafts of memos, briefs, and FAQs using public or approved internal content.
• Policy Q&A over approved, non-sensitive knowledge bases.
• Ticket triage and categorization (no PII), routed to human agents.
• Basic code refactoring or script generation in isolated dev/test spaces.

Governance Notes

• Map use to your AI governance policy and risk tiers.
• Validate vendor assurances on data usage, model training, and retention.
• Confirm incident response paths for prompt/response leakage or misuse.

Helpful References

• NIST AI Risk Management Framework
• General Services Administration

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