Severity negligible: Nothing beyond the system itself was affected and nothing was left changed. No evidence that Grok's response determined or influenced the operation; no effect beyond the exchange itself is stated.
Happened 2025-12 · Earliest source we hold 2026-10-30 · Captured by AI Risk Wire 2026-10-31 03:27 UTC
Democratic lawmakers Raskin and Garcia wrote to the White House demanding preservation of records of President Trump's AI chatbot conversations, after reports that Trump asked Grok in December 2025 how Venezuelans would react to Maduro's capture.
Risks this incident falls under
Not yet sorted into a risk
Control failure chain
L1 · Model Not read yetProvider not named
L2 · Harness Not read yetHarness not named
L3 · Application Not read yetDeployer not named
L4 · Infrastructure / target Not read yetOrganisation hit
L1 · ModelProvider not namedModel provider
Sources not yet read for controls.
Model version not linked to a model card.
L2 · HarnessHarness not namedAgent framework vendor
Sources not yet read for controls.
L3 · ApplicationDeployer not namedDeployer
Sources not yet read for controls.
L4 · Infrastructure / targetOrganisation hitOrganisation hit
No source we hold states: who caused it, intended or not, before or after release, the ai's part.
The story
1 · What it was doingPresident Trump reportedly asked Grok, Elon Musk's chatbot, during a December 2025 Oval Office meeting with Musk how Venezuelans would respond if US forces removed Maduro.
2 · What went wrongLawmakers say a privately controlled chatbot may have informed sensitive government decisions, and that presidential AI prompts and responses may be records under the Presidential Records Act that were not being preserved.
3 · What it reached or didThe exchange stayed between Trump and Grok; there is no evidence Grok's answer influenced the operation that captured Maduro on 3 January 2026.
4 · What was doneRaskin and Garcia demanded the White House preserve records of Trump's AI chats and requested a briefing by 11 November; the White House said it preserves all records required by law.
No source states: how it was caught, when it was found, how many records were exposed, the direct loss, a count of the other parties affected, any court case, the cause, what set it off.
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Software around the model
chatbot
C one secondary source states it
Stage of use
in live use
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
What it was for
Policy advice to the US President on how Venezuelans would react to the capture of Maduro
C one secondary source states it
What happened
When it happened
2025-12-01
C one secondary source states it
Earliest source we hold
2026-10-30
A the date the source itself carries
Near miss
yes, no harm happened
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
What went wrong
other
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
AI agent
no AI agent acted
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Impact
Severity
negligible
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Kind of harm
no harm happened
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Who was affected
Grok chatbot conversations about the possible capture of Nicolás Maduro
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Why this severity
Nothing beyond the system itself was affected and nothing was left changed. No evidence that Grok's response determined or influenced the operation; no effect beyond the exchange itself is stated.
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Context
Industry
Public Administration
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Country
United States
C one secondary source states it
Rules that apply
Presidential Records Act
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
LR-2026-0295 · version 2 · published 2026-10-31 after automatic checks; not yet checked field by field by a person · changes to this case · JSON