Musk’s team monitors employees of US government agencies using his artificial intelligence – Reuters
8 April 2025 16:59
Elon Musk ‘s team is using artificial intelligence to monitor US government officials. This was reported by Reuters sources, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports. According to them, DOGE (Department of Government Effectiveness) monitors the communications of employees of at least one government agency, tracking criticism of President Trump and his policies.
The DOGE team, founded to optimize the US federal government, uses the Signal messenger for its own communications, which raises concerns about possible violations of federal records retention rules, as messages can be set to be automatically deleted. In addition, the Grok chatbot, developed by Musk’s company, is actively used to reduce government spending.
The situation at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is particularly noteworthy, where the management was informed about the introduction of AI to monitor employees. According to sources, Trump’s appointees warned managers that DOGE monitors corporate communications, including through Microsoft Teams, looking for statements that could be seen as hostile to Trump or Musk.
The Environmental Protection Agency has undergone significant changes under the new administration, with nearly 600 employees furloughed and its budget cut by 65%, which could lead to further staff cuts. Employees were even advised to “be careful what you say, write, and do.”
After the article was published, the EPA confirmed that it was considering the use of AI to optimize work, but denied using technology in personnel decisions.
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Musk has previously stated that the goal of DOGE is to cut federal spending by $1 trillion (about 15% of the annual US budget). According to a person familiar with his comments, last year Musk proposed using AI to replace government workers in order to
“build the most dynamic AI system that will do the work for people.”
Ethics and cybersecurity experts have expressed concern about the transparency of DOGE’s activities.
“If they’re using Signal and not keeping copies of messages, they’re acting illegally,”
– said Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, adding that the potential surveillance
“looks like an abuse of power to suppress speech the president doesn’t like.”
On March 10, a federal judge ordered DOGE to begin turning over documents to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which filed a lawsuit seeking access to the documents. As of Monday, no materials have been provided.
The discussion of the situation continues in the context of a large-scale reorganization of the US federal government and concerns about a potential conflict of interest, as Musk, as a special civil servant, is legally prohibited from participating in government activities that could benefit him or his companies.
However, as wrote, Musk is still planning to profit from government contracts.
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