ChatGPT gets one step closer to widespread government use; Microsoft will offer Copilot for free to some government customers

OpenAI has cleared another critical hurdle to selling its ChatGPT tool directly to the federal government. As of Tuesday, ChatGPT is listed as “in process” on the FedRAMP Marketplace, an online repository that tracks where companies stand in the FedRAMP security review process. While federal agencies can issue their own approvals to use technology platforms, FedRAMP is the government’s primary security review program and is designed to clear widespread cloud-based technologies for use across federal agencies. OpenAI received prioritized authorization through 20x, a person familiar with the matter told FedScoop. It’s the first company to receive this prioritization, which, in effect, eliminates the need for companies to find federal agencies to sponsor them for review. At one point, OpenAI had engaged USAID, its first enterprise customer, about helping them with the process, FedScoop previously reported, but the agency was mostly shuttered in the early days of the second Trump administration. The General Services Administration created the prioritized review for AI cloud services just last month. Microsoft will offer a host of its cloud services at a discounted price to the federal government, the General Services Administration announced Tuesday, including its artificial intelligence assistant Copilot at no cost to some agencies. The OneGov deal makes Microsoft the latest technology firm to leverage steep discounts on its cloud products to expand adoption within the federal government. It comes on the heels of GSA’s deals with industry competitors like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, which are separately offering their AI models to the government for a dollar or less. Under the new agreement, Microsoft will offer its subscription service, Microsoft 365, Azure Cloud Services, and Dynamics 365 — the company’s suite of business management apps — for a “discounted price” for up to 36 months. 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.