Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok reportedly played a role in shaping the Trump administration's decision to invade Venezuela and capture President Nicolás Maduro, according to a Time magazine report published Wednesday.
The report reveals that in December 2025, about a month before the U.S. military operation, Trump spent hours conversing with Grok during a secret meeting with Musk. When Trump asked how Venezuelans would respond to their president's capture, Grok reportedly told him that Maduro was a "deeply unpopular dictator" and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall.
When celebrations indeed occurred after the January 3 invasion, Trump reportedly "came away thinking Grok was ingenious," according to a source familiar with the matter.
This isn't the first time Grok has been linked to military operations. In June 2026, the Pentagon's head of AI confirmed that the military used Gov Grok to deploy and strike targets during the Iran War. While Grok isn't the only AI model serving the Department of Defense—OpenAI also has an agreement and Anthropic has been in discussions about military use—Grok may become increasingly favored under the current administration.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that Musk and Anduril's Palmer Luckey have been tapped to co-lead a study on how advanced technology is and can be used on battlefields, further cementing the tech billionaire's influence on defense policy.
