OpenAI Unveils ChatGPT for US Government Use

OpenAI on Wednesday (Jan. 28) unveiled a version of ChatGPT that it said has the security, reliability and privacy guardrails necessary for use by the U.S. government.

Called ChatGPT Gov, OpenAI said this version will provide more extensive security capabilities required by the U.S. government. The consumer version of ChatGPT, a public generative AI chatbot, can hallucinate, introduce bias and leak information.

“Self-hosting ChatGPT Gov enables agencies to more easily manage their own security, privacy, and compliance requirements,” OpenAI said in a blog post . These include having “stringent” cybersecurity frameworks.

OpenAI also said ChatGPT Gov can better handle “non-public sensitive data.”

Several companies have already restricted the use of ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots for work, including 65% of the 20 largest pharmaceutical firms, according to a 2024 survey by ZoomRx. The main reason cited by almost all was “security and the potential to leak internal data.”

Apple, Amazon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Samsung and Verizon have banned the internal use of ChatGPT, the survey said.

The U.S. government, the largest customer in America and the world, has even more stringent requirements than corporations. OpenAI addresses those concerns with its ChatGPT Gov version.

“Enabling the public sector, especially the U.S. federal government, to leverage ChatGPT is critical to maintaining America’s global leadership in AI,” wrote OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil, in a post on X .

“We see enormous potential for these tools to support the public sector in tackling complex challenges — from improving public health and infrastructure to strengthening national security,” Weil said.

Since the start of 2024, more than 90,000 federal, state and local government workers have created more than 18 million ChatGPT prompts, according to CNBC . They used the AI chatbot to translate and summarize documents, write policy memos, generate code and build apps.

Government agencies can deploy ChatGPT Gov in their own Microsoft Azure commercial cloud or Azure Government Cloud, which sits on top of Microsoft’s OpenAI Service platform. This is so the government can manage its own security, privacy and compliance needs, CNBC reported.

ChatGPT Gov should be available in the “near future,” with testing by customers and live usage coming “within a month,” Felipe Million, OpenAI’s lead for federal sales and go-to-market, told CNBC . He said agencies with sensitive data would get the most out of ChatGPT Gov, such as defense, law enforcement and health care.