In recent weeks, three of the leading American artificial intelligence firms have announced partnerships with the US government, promising the use of their services to federal workers for a paltry sum. Elon Musk’s xAI was supposed to be part of the initiative, but a planned partnership fell apart after the Grok chatbot spouted antisemitic conspiracy theories on X in early July, WIRED has learned.

The chaos surrounding the Grok deal reflects the Trump administration's current focus on speed and its disregard, at times, of preexisting norms surrounding government tech procurement.

On May 15, fresh off a whirlwind trip to the Middle East with President Donald Trump, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sent an email to the leadership team at the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal ag

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