OpenAI announced on Tuesday it is launching “ChatGPT Gov,” an AI tool which was specifically developed for U.S. government agencies to utilize.
The Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence company is billing its new government-related platform as a step that goes beyond ChatGPT Enterprise with regards to security, according to a report by CNBC.
During a Monday briefing, OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil told reporters that ChatGPT Gov will allow government agencies to feed “non-public, sensitive information” into the company’s AI models.
The U.S. government agencies, who will be OpenAI’s customers, will also be operating within their own private secure hosting environments, Weil added.
OpenAI said government officials are using ChatGPT anyway, noting that last year, more than 90,000 federal, state, and local government employees have generated more than 18 million prompts using the AI chatbot.
They have been reportedly using ChatGPT to translate and summarize documents, write and draft policy memos, generate code, and build applications.
While ChatGPT Gov’s user interface looks like ChatGPT Enterprise, “the main difference is that government agencies will use ChatGPT Gov in their own Microsoft Azure commercial cloud, or Azure Government community cloud, so they can manage their own security, privacy and compliance requirements,” CNBC reported, citing Felipe Millon, head of OpenAI’s federal sales and go-to-market.
Notably, the concept of government agencies using AI has fallen under intense scrutiny, with some citing the reality that police usage of the technology has resulted in a number of wrongful arrests.
An OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC that the company acknowledges these types of issues, but pointed to a blog post the company wrote highlighting that the platform is subject to its usage policies.
ChatGPT Enterprise, which supports ChatGPT Gov, is currently going through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), but has yet to be accredited, the outlet reported.
Weil told CNBC it will be a “long process,” and that he cannot provide a timeline as of yet.
“I know President Trump is also looking at how we can potentially streamline that, because it’s one way of getting more modern software tooling into the government and helping the government run more efficiently,” Weil said. “So we’re very excited about that.”
After being asked if the Trump administration played a role in ChatGPT Gov, Weil answered that he was in Washington, D.C., for President Donald Trump’s inauguration and “got to spend a lot of time with folks coming into the new administration.”
“The focus is on ensuring that the U.S. wins in AI” and that “our interests are very aligned,” Weil said.
Notably, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also attended Trump’s inauguration, as well as other tech CEOs.
“Watching [Trump] more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (I wish I had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the NPC trap),” Altman wrote in an X post last week.
“I’m not going to agree with him on everything, but I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!” the OpenAI CEO added.
watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (i wish i had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap).
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 23, 2025
i'm not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
