President Donald Trump consulted Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok in the weeks before ordering a U.S. operation to remove Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. After a meeting with Musk, Trump spent hours querying Grok about his presidency, legacy and how Venezuelans would react to Maduro’s overthrow; Grok reportedly predicted popular celebration, a forecast that reportedly impressed the president. The administration then approved air strikes on January 2 as part of a months‑long plan called “Absolute Resolve,” and a two‑and‑a‑half hour extraction on January 3 used bombers, fighters and helicopters to seize Maduro, who was moved through Guantánamo Bay and on to New York. Cuba said 32 of its citizens were killed during the operation. Maduro now faces U.S. charges including narcoterrorism and conspiracy to transport cocaine and denies the accusations ahead of a trial next June.
Grok’s influence has extended inside government: the new America.gov chatbot is powered in part by Grok and Google’s Gemini. Trump has publicly championed AI, signing an executive order to rechristen it “super intelligence” and brushing aside aides’ warnings about technological risks; he posted on Truth Social that “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!” Meanwhile polls show widespread public anxiety about AI’s dangers, with a significant minority fearing it could destroy humanity.
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