As Donald Trump offers federal employees massive buyouts in a bid to axe as many as possible, OpenAI is conveniently offering a new AI tool to replace that workload.
In a new blog post, OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT Gov, a "tailored version" of the company's groundbreaking chatbot with additional security layers for the processing of sensitive government information.
Unveiled just a week after Trump's $500 billion Stargate AI deal that includes OpenAI — and right before his administration offered government employees "deferred resignation" in exchange for months of pay and benefits — this new version of ChatGPT will, as CNBC reports, operate similarly to the enterprise version that underpins it.
In a call with reporters, OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil insisted that agencies will be able to input "non-public, sensitive information" into ChatGPT Gov — even though ChatGPT Enterprise has not finished the "long process" of getting federal accreditation for such usage.
Despite that shaky foundation, the company told FedScoop that it's already in conversation with "several" unnamed agencies who want to use ChatGPT Gov — an alarming prospect in terms of national security, though to be fair, Trump's human "First Buddy" also lacks the level of security clearance needed for the work he does as well.
With OpenAI announcing ChatGPT just before news broke about Trump's "deferred resignation" scheme, folks online smelled something fishy.
"Just happen to announce this the same day they invite all federal employees to quit," Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a particle physicist at the University of New Hampshire, posted on Bluesky. "Your social security is going to be handled by [a] large language model that is on constantly on shrooms."
Beyond the mighty coincidental timing, folks also pointed out just how easily this project involving a technology notorious for making stuff up could backfire.
"This seems like a great way for private organizations to mine government data," one Bluesky user noted.
"'Having been dunked on by [C]hina, what if we propped up this boondoggle with the federal government,'" another Bluesky poster joked, in a clear reference to DeepSeek's big weekend.
The r/artificial subreddit, meanwhile, called a spade a spade.
"The only possible moat for OpenAI left," one commentator quipped. "Government slop that doesn't do anything meaningful and wastes taxpayer dollars."
And wait a second — wasn't saving money supposed to be a top goal of the Trump administration?
More on government and AI: Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Woke AI
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