Elizabeth Warren calls on Pete Hegseth to defend Pentagon’s deal with xAI; a new CIO for Secret Service

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised serious national security concerns this week about the Pentagon’s plans to integrate the controversial “Grok” chatbot into U.S. military operations via a recent high-dollar deal with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company, xAI. Warner d wrote in her letter delivered to Hegseth Wednesday that “the department awarded a $200 million contract under questionable circumstances to incorporate an AI company with a product that provides misinformation and offensive, antisemitic responses into DOD’s operations.” In the correspondence, Warren asks the Pentagon chief to answer dozens of questions about the xAI contract, its full scope of work, ethics and accountability issues and more, by Sept. 24. The Defense Department announced in July that its Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) partnered with xAI, Anthropic, Google and OpenAI — through four, separate $200 million agreements — to accelerate the department’s enterprise-wide adoption of some of the most sophisticated and still-emerging commercial algorithms and machine learning capabilities. Chris Kraft, the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy chief technology officer for artificial intelligence and emerging tech, is now serving as the acting chief information officer of the U.S. Secret Service. Kraft, who’s focused primarily on AI in his DHS role, replaces Kevin Nally, who recently left government for a position in the private sector. Kraft’s new position was not confirmed by spokespeople for the U.S. Secret Service, but he acknowledged the role on LinkedIn. Due to its mission, the Secret Service is quieter than other agencies on its technology portfolio, but the agency uses a variety of platforms and faces serious technology challenges. After the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania in July 2024, FedScoop documented a series of tools at the component’s disposal, including commercial telemetry data and Protective Threat Management System. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.