America.gov AI chatbot: what it does and what's promised
The America.gov AI chatbot runs on Gemini and Grok and answers from official sites. What it does today, what it keeps and what's promised for 2027.
Source-based. Written from the documents, reporting and reviews linked in the text. Nothing here was tested hands-on by The Ruling Desk. How we work
The US government launched the America.gov AI chatbot on September 29, 2026, a single website where you type a question in your own words and get an answer drawn from official government pages. It runs on Google's Gemini and xAI's Grok, according to US Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia. For now it answers and points you to the right agency; filling in forms and applications on the site itself is a promise, which America.gov's own pages place in 2027.
Key takeaways
- Launched and live: President Trump signed an executive order on September 29 making America.gov the "front door" to federal services, and the site went live that morning. The General Services Administration (GSA) runs it.
- Answers only, for now: it explains programs and links to the agency that owns them. Its FAQ says it can't check an application's status or see your records.
- Two AI models behind it: Gebbia named Gemini and Grok. Neither the site nor the announcements say how the work is split between them or whether you can choose one.
- What it keeps: the privacy policy says chats aren't saved as a history and its AI providers retain no prompts or answers, but feedback is kept up to a year and cached answers up to two hours.
- Transactions are planned, not here: passport applications and Medicare enrollment are promised. America.gov says early 2027; a White House fact sheet says "later this year".
What the America.gov AI chatbot is
America.gov is a chat box on a government website. You describe what you need ("I just got married. How do I change my last name?" is one of the examples on its homepage) and it replies with plain steps and links to the official pages behind them. It needs no account and no app, and it answers in English, Spanish or French, according to its how it works page.
The executive order behind it tells GSA, working with the National Design Studio and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to establish the site and connect Login.gov, the government's sign-in service. OMB has 90 days to tell agencies how to plug in. The order covers online federal services used by more than 100,000 people a year, and leaves out IRS tax services and some defense and intelligence services.
The site was unveiled at a day-long event at Washington's Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, CNBC reported. The same day, AI company leaders signed a separate voluntary pledge at the White House, covered in our explainer on the White House AI accord.
Gemini and Grok behind the answers
Gebbia told CNBC's Squawk Box that the chatbot is powered by Gemini and Grok. He said it scans "roughly 29,000" government websites on the back end to build each answer, and the homepage advertises "29,000 websites into one", with answers sourced from federal, state and local sites. Google confirmed its part in a company blog post calling itself a technology partner "leveraging Gemini". xAI, which CNBC says is now part of SpaceX, did not respond to CNBC.
What nobody has published is the wiring: which model does what, and whether you ever get to pick. FedScoop also found those details unspecified.
Gebbia told CNBC there is "no chance" of outdated or inaccurate information. The site's own terms of use are more careful: AI answers "can be incomplete or wrong", and you should check the linked source before acting on anything involving money, benefits, immigration status or a deadline.
What you can ask it today, and what it hands off
Today the America.gov AI chatbot is a guide, not a counter window. The terms say that asking a question doesn't submit an application, file a document or contact an agency for you, and that America.gov isn't the agency of record. The FAQ adds that it can't access agency records or check an application's status; it points you to the agency's own tracker instead.
Here is what the site says it can do now:
- answer questions such as when you qualify for Medicare or how to replace a Social Security card, with links to the sources;
- explain a government form or letter you upload as a PDF, after trying to strip personal details in your browser;
- take a spoken question through your browser's speech recognition.
America.gov privacy: what it does with your questions
The privacy policy, dated September 29, 2026, is the most specific document the government has published about the site. What it says it keeps, and for how long:
| Data | What the policy says | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your conversation | Held in browser memory, not saved as a history or included in analytics | Until you leave |
| Feedback (thumbs up or down) | Your rating, comments, the AI answer and its sources | Up to 1 year |
| Operational measurements | Pseudonymous identifiers, timing, token counts | Up to 90 days |
| Cached AI answers | Stored in Cloudflare KV, keyed by a hash of your question, not its text | Up to 2 hours |
| Security logs | May include your IP address | 12 months |
On the AI companies, the policy says they work under zero data retention agreements, keep none of your prompts or answers, and are contractually barred from selling your data, profiling you for ads or training their models on it. It also says the site may send them your approximate city or region, estimated from your network address.
That last line is where The Register sees a conflict: it reports that the White House said no user messages are sent to Gemini or Grok, which is hard to square with a policy describing what the providers receive. Voice input is another exception to keep in mind: your browser may send the audio to its own provider, such as Google in Chrome or Apple in Safari.
Privacy, passports and the 2027 promise
The next phase is where the site would handle your personal data. America.gov's coming soon page says "early 2027" and shows demos of enrolling in Medicare with records pulled from Social Security, Veterans Affairs and Medicare, applying for a passport, and matching a resume to federal jobs. Its about page calls this Phase 2, beginning in 2027, and Gebbia gave FedScoop the same year.
The White House fact sheet is more ambitious, saying passport renewal and Medicare enrollment come "later this year". Neither document says how today's no-history privacy design would change once the site needs to know who you are.
Not everyone expects the hard part to be quick. Mikey Dickerson, the first administrator of the US Digital Service, told FedScoop "It's very easy to get something very superficial done", and that going past links runs into programs owned by separate agencies with mismatched systems. Code for America CEO Amanda Renteria told FedScoop the real measure is how the tool helps people at their hardest moments, not how many use it.
Bottom line
America.gov is live, free and useful as a smarter search box for government questions, as long as you click through to the linked source before acting. It won't file anything or check your status yet. Keep personal details out of your questions, as the site itself asks. The thing to watch is the promised 2027 phase: when the site starts handling applications, look for a new privacy policy that explains what changes once you sign in. For more on the AI rules and deals shaping tools like this, see our AI coverage.
FAQ
Is America.gov an official government website?
Yes. It is operated by the General Services Administration, a federal agency, under an executive order signed on September 29, 2026. Its pages carry the standard "An official website of the United States government" banner.
Which AI does America.gov use?
Google's Gemini and xAI's Grok, according to Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia, and Google confirmed its role. How the two models share the work, and whether you can choose one, has not been published.
Can I apply for a passport on America.gov?
Not yet. Today it can only explain the steps and link you to the official passport pages. Applying on the site is planned: America.gov says early 2027, while the White House fact sheet says later in 2026.
Does America.gov save my questions?
Its privacy policy says your chat is held in browser memory and not saved as a history, and that its AI providers keep none of your prompts. It does keep feedback you choose to send for up to a year, and cached answers, keyed by a hash of your question, for up to two hours.