America gets a chatbot

The federal government has a chatbot. President Donald Trump launched america.gov on Tuesday, a new site that looks like ChatGPT or Claude with a prompt box to query the federal government. The underlying LLM draws its responses from official state sources. “With america.gov, the federal government no longer stands in your way, and it stands only at your service, and that’s what we’re doing,” Trump said at the unveiling. “We’re simplifying it, we’re glamorizing it, we’re making it what it should be.” Trump signed an executive order Tuesday establishing the site, and according to the executive order, it excludes tax filing services provided by the Internal Revenue Service as well as services provided by the intelligence community and the Defense Department. [Screenshot: America.gov] The site features a prompt box under a welcome message that reads, “Hello, America” and “Whatever you need from government, start here.” Suggested prompts include “How do I register my new business?,” “How do I replace my Social Security card?,” and “How do I book a campsite in a national park?” The idea is that citizens can simply ask the chatbot for answers instead of navigating digital government bur…