--- title: "Elon Musk’s DOGE Training an AI to Analyze Government Spending" description: "Billionaire Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is ripping through the federal government's agencies at a breakneck pace, to the horror of former government officials, who have been relegated to the sidelines. As part of their efforts to analyze huge swaths of sensitive data, DOGE is training a custom AI chatbot for the US general Services Administration (GSA), which manages office buildings and IT infrastructure across the federal government, Wired reports. According to Wired's sources, the purported goal is to sift through contracts and procurement data to get a better sense of where the government's money is being […]" date: "2025-02-07" modified: "2025-02-07" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-doge-ai-government" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "artificial intelligence" - "doge" - "elon musk" - "generative ai" - "government" --- # Elon Musk’s DOGE Training an AI to Analyze Government Spending ![DOGE is training a custom AI chatbot for the US General Services Administration (GSA), which manages office buildings and IT infrastructure.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Billionaire Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is ripping through the federal government's agencies at a breakneck pace — to the horror of many, but perhaps particularly [IT professionals and cybersecurity experts](). As part of their efforts to analyze huge swaths of sensitive data, [*Wired* reports](), DOGE is training a custom AI chatbot for the US General Services Administration (GSA), which manages office buildings and IT infrastructure across the federal government. According to the publication's sources, the purported goal is to sift through contracts and procurement data to get a better sense of where the government's money is being spent. Needless to say, introducing an [inherently flawed]() and [wildly unreliable]() technology and allowing it to access copious amounts of sensitive data could have disastrous outcomes. Former president Joe Biden introduced an [executive order]() for the "safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of AI" in 2023, which was focused on preventing AI-enabled threats to national security, among other goals. But on his first day in office, president Donald Trump [revoked the order](), setting the stage for a far more loose and potentially reckless, [Silicon Valley-inspired "move fast and break things" approach](). In other words, the development of an AI chatbot intended to make sweeping budgetary recommendations for the federal government is part of a much larger "[AI-first strategy]()" — unintended consequences be damned. We've long known that the tech has an [tendency to hallucinate facts]() and [leak sensitive data](), making it an incredibly poor fit for the job. In an audio recording obtained by *Wired*, former Tesla employee and current head of the government's Technology Transformation Services Thomas Shedd argued that the development of a "centralized place for contracts so we can run analysis on them" was "not new at all." "This goes back to this, 'How do we understand how the government is spending money?'" he said in the recording. But the swift embrace of AI tech is already hitting major hurdles. According to *Wired*'s sources, DOGE's team "quietly halted the rollout of at least one generative AI tool this week." The shadowy group of Elon Musk cronies had also hoped to employ an AI coding assistant called Cursor, but quickly changed their mind "for further review," according to *Wired*. Instead, DOGE has been pushing workers to use Microsoft's GitHub Copilot instead. Despite the repeated slip-ups, DOGE has already [started making use of AI tools]() within the Department of Education, as the [*Washington Post* reported]() earlier this week, feeding sensitive data into AI software. It remains to be seen whether the GSA's AI chatbot will bear any fruit, even if by meaningfully speeding up DOGE's efforts to slash government funding. But given the flaws of the tech, the cracks may soon start to show. **More on DOGE:** *[One of Elon's DOGE Boys Just Resigned After His Incredibly Racist Tweets Were Discovered]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()