Prof. Richard Painter Quoted by Reuters About Musk’s Possible Conflict of Interest With Government Using Grok Chatbot

Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, was quoted by Reuters about Elon Musk’s DOGE team expanding use of his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok in the U.S. federal government to analyze data, potentially violating conflict-of-interest laws and putting at risk sensitive information on millions of Americans. Such use of Grok could reinforce concerns among privacy advocates and others that Musk’s team appears to be casting aside long-established protections over the handling of sensitive data. In addition, if Musk has been directly involved in decisions to use Grok, it could violate a criminal conflict-of-interest statute which bars officials — including special government employees — from participating in matters that could benefit them financially, according to Prof. Painter. He said, “This gives the appearance that DOGE is pressuring agencies to use software to enrich Musk and xAI, and not to the benefit of the American people.” The statute is rarely prosecuted but can result in fines or jail time.