Real talk: the line between AI hype and actual geopolitical warfare is getting weirdly thin. According to a new report from Time, President Trump spent hours consulting Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot during a secret meeting in December 2025. The goal? He wanted to know how the public would react to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The AI in the Room
It’s giving major 'black mirror' vibes, but apparently, Grok told Trump that Maduro was widely disliked and that a coup would be met with celebrations. When the U.S. invaded on January 3 and those celebrations actually happened, Trump was reportedly convinced that Grok was a genius. This wasn't just a one-off tech experiment, though. By June 2026, the Pentagon’s head of AI confirmed that the military had already used 'Gov Grok' to help target strikes during the Iran War.
Why it matters
We’ve seen OpenAI and Anthropic navigating military contracts before, but Grok is moving into a different weight class. With the Pentagon officially tapping Musk and Anduril’s Palmer Luckey to co-lead a study on battlefield tech, it’s safe to say AI is becoming a permanent fixture in U.S. military strategy. Whether that’s a W or a massive L depends on who you ask, but the plot is definitely thickening.
