OPM drops Claude, adds Grok and Codex to AI use disclosure

The Office of Personnel Management removed Claude and added Grok and Codex in an update to its public disclosure of AI use cases dated Wednesday. Removal of Claude comes after a disagreement between its maker, Anthropic, and the Department of Defense over the technology’s guardrails culminated in President Donald Trump issuing a governmentwide ban on the company late last week. In the following days, numerous federal agencies have made moves to stop using Anthropic’s services, including OPM. While the changes to the disclosure were made at the same time, Grok and Codex were not added as the result of Claude’s removal, OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover said in an emailed response to FedScoop. The human capital agency is “constantly working to provide the best tools to the OPM workforce. These initiatives were already underway,” Pinover said. According to the new inventory, the “first production use” for both tools is listed as the first quarter of 2026. Pinover confirmed that date references the calendar year rather than fiscal year. Grok, a product of Elon Musk’s xAI, is listed as in production, and Codex, a coding specific AI tool from OpenAI, is being deployed in a sandbox phase — which generally describes a kind of controlled environment. OPM also added several other systems that deploy AI to its public disclosure, including Wiz, Zendesk, Waze, Google Maps, and the Apple iPhone. James “Aaron” Bishop has been tapped to serve as the Pentagon’s chief information security officer and deputy CIO for cybersecurity, the department announced on social media Thursday. He assumed the role of CISO in an acting capacity on Feb. 27, according to a LinkedIn post from the Office of the Chief Information Officer. In his new position, he’ll work under DOD CIO Kirsten Davies and be responsible for providing policy, technical, program and oversight support to the CIO on all cybersecurity matters. Bishop previously served as CISO for the Department of the Air Force, which includes the Air and Space Forces. According to his Air Force bio, his prior jobs in the private sector included CEO and founder of the Quantum Security Alliance, CEO and founder of Eigenspace, vice president and CISO for Science Applications International Corporation, and general manager of Microsoft’s National Security Group, among other roles. David McKeown, who previously served as the department’s CISO, deputy CIO for cybersecurity and special assistant for cybersecurity innovation, plans to leave government service for the private sector, according to the announcement. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.