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There are those who question why Elon Musk, the wealthiest man on the planet, put so much time and effort as a special employee of the government into the ludicrously conceived ‘DOGE.’ He was never, much less easily, going to find 2 trillion dollars in waste and fraud in a federal budget of about 6.8 trillion dollars. What he has cut is funding for things he did not approve of and that seemed to threaten him in some way. (See which Inspectors General were fired.) Tesla stock and sales for the current calendar year have severely fallen with some markets seeing declines in car sales for nearly 80 percent. the actions taken by Elon do not seem wise for someone wanting to hang on to their wealth.

One theory, backed with no real evidence, is that gaining access to so many sources of data from within the government was Musk’s real goal. Musk’s entry into the A.I. space with ‘Grok’ is a little behind his competitors and the theory suggests that such a vast trove of data would be an asset in Musk catching up.

Along those lines I have seen one curious data point.

Last year before Musk had access to the data, such as from the Library of Congress, I asked Grok to summarize the plot of my novel Vulcan’s Forge. I have done this with several A.I., some created lies, inventing plots while others responded with answers that they did not access to that information. None have ever actually provided a synopsis. Grok in 2024 invented a plot that had absolutely nothing to do with my novel.

This year, in the last few weeks, Grok now provides a short synopsis with not inaccuracies, getting plot, characters, and themes correctly.

Did Grok get my full manuscript from the library of congress?

I have no real evidence of that, but it certainly gained access to the text, which I never authorized.