DOGE: Elon Musk's team feeds sensitive US government data to AI

Elon Musk's restless team is reportedly making extensive use of AI technology to analyze the work of US government departments and wants to make the administration of federal agencies more productive with a self-developed AI chatbot. This is according to reports from the Washington Post and Wired. According to the US daily newspaper, Musk's employees have fed an AI with sensitive data from the Department of Education in order to review the institution's work and expenditure. Among other things, this involves personal data from government employees who manage expenditure, as well as internal financial data.

Rapid access to as much data as possible

The team is the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" ("DOGE"), which is supposed to make suggestions for reducing government spending. In the Ministry of Education, it is now trying out what is to be repeated in other government institutions. AI is intended to help drastically reduce the size and expenditure of the US government, writes the Washington Post. The dangers of feeding highly sensitive data into the software and the fact that its summaries can be flawed are apparently being ignored. Meanwhile, the team is proceeding with great speed, the newspaper writes, and is securing rapid access to all data.

Wired adds to the report with the information that DOGE is also developing an AI chatbot to increase the productivity of the General Services Administration (GSA). The US authority is to support other authorities. A text generator called "GSAi" is being developed for them to analyze a large number of contracts and procurement orders in order to recommend cost reductions. It is being developed in-house because talks with Google about using Gemini were unsuccessful. The US government's use of AI is therefore not entirely new, but the decisiveness with which it is proceeding is. Previously, caution had always been advised.

Read also

DOGE: Elon Musk starts work amid controversy

(mho)