New Letter Warns Next Grok ‘Mistake’ Could Be Leaked National Security Files

Today, a coalition of 30+ organizations and AI experts released a new letter warning of the potential national security implications of the Pentagon’s use of Elon Musk’s Grok. The letter, signed by organizations including Public Citizen, Indivisible, the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), UltraViolet and others, calls on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to decommission the unsafe and untested technology.

Earlier letters in August and October of 2025 similarly warned OMB against federal deployment of the AI technology and called for suspension of its use. Earlier this month, Grok was embroiled in scandal after flooding Musk’s X with “nudified” and other sexualized images of women and girls, which has led to the launch of an investigation by the European Commission.

“AI experts and consumer groups have been sounding the alarm on Grok’s mounting safety concerns, citing it as unstable. Allowing Grok into the federal government was reckless and now that it has access to classified documents, the situation is infinitely more dire,” said J.B. Branch, Big Tech accountability advocate at Public Citizen. “The next Grok failure might not involve nudified images of women, it could compromise national security.”

In addition to immediately suspending the federal deployment of Grok, the letter demands the following actions be taken:

• Initiate a formal investigation into Grok’s safety failures and the procurement and oversight processes that permitted its federal deployment, including whether required risk assessments, mitigation measures, and compliance determinations were conducted and appropriately reviewed.
• Publicly clarify whether Grok has been evaluated for compliance with Executive Order 14319’s truth-seeking and neutrality requirements and whether it was determined to meet OMB’s risk mitigation standards.
• Require disclosure of all safety testing, red-teaming results, and risk assessments conducted on Grok as a condition of any continued consideration for federal use.
• Account for the legal basis on which Grok remains available to federal agencies despite documented violations of OMB’s binding guidance.

The full letter is available to view on the Public Citizen website. For more information, or to speak with an expert, contact eleach@citizen.org.