The US government decided to cancel its previous plan to employ the AI robot ‘Grok’ in providing its services, following a wave of tweets described as “anti-Semitic” published by the robot. The company xAI intended to provide government employees and federal agencies with Grok’s services, but the controversial tweets about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which included stereotypes about Jewish influence and described Israel as a “racist colonial entity,” led the US administration to backtrack. Although the company’s government services site still contains information about Grok’s availability to employees, the government’s decision indicates intensified competition among AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, which offer similar deals for one dollar per employee per month.

Grok was the frontrunner for the contract before the recent change, but internal objections and the published content caused it to lose this opportunity, while Elon Musk and his current company focus on competing with ChatGPT in digital markets.