Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok reportedly advised Trump on capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro before the January 2026 invasion.

In December 2025, President Trump held a secret meeting with Elon Musk, roughly seven months after Musk left the Department of Government Efficiency. During this session, Trump spent hours consulting Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, about Venezuela. According to reports from Time, people had been asking Grok about U.S. military strikes against Venezuelan boats that began in September 2025.

Grok advised Trump that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was an unpopular dictator and that citizens would likely celebrate his removal. After the U.S. invaded Venezuela and captured Maduro on January 3, 2026, Trump reportedly viewed the chatbot as ingenious. Following these events, the Pentagon’s head of artificial intelligence stated in June 2026 that the military used Gov Grok to deploy and strike targets during the Iran War.

Grok operates alongside models from OpenAI and Anthropic within the Department of Defense. Additionally, the Pentagon announced that Musk and Anduril leader Palmer Luckey will co-lead a study on the use of advanced technology in battlefields.