Musk uses AI to identify Trump's enemies among officials - Reuters

According to the media resource, much of the activity of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) remains shrouded in secrecy. Civil servants have already suffered from mass layoffs and sharp budget cuts.

The DOGE team also uses the Signal app for communication, which violates federal recordkeeping rules since messages can disappear after a certain period of time.

And they have "heavily" deployed Musk's Grok AI chatbot - a promising competitor to ChatGPT - as part of their efforts to target the government, a source said.

The use of AI and Signal reinforces concerns among cybersecurity experts and government ethicists that DOGE is operating with limited transparency. They fear that billionaire Musk or the Trump administration could use the information gathered through AI to advance their own interests or pursue political goals.

Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said DOGE's use of Signal raises concerns about their methods. "If they’re using Signal and not backing up every message to federal files, then they are acting unlawfully," Clark said.

Last month, senior Trump administration officials were criticized for mistakenly including a journalist in a group chat about planning military operations in Yemen.

Musk's AI

Reuters interviewed nearly 20 people familiar with DOGE's activities and reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents from lawsuits challenging DOGE's access to data. These reveal the unconventional use of artificial intelligence and other technologies.

For example, at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Trump appointees told some managers that Musk’s team was deploying AI to monitor employees, specifically to identify language in messages deemed hostile toward Trump or Musk.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces laws such as the Clean Air Act and works to protect the environment, has come under scrutiny from the Trump administration. Since January, it has placed nearly 600 employees on leave and announced a 65% budget cut, which may require further staff reductions.

Trump-appointed officials who took positions at the agency informed managers that DOGE is using AI to monitor communication platforms and software, including Microsoft Teams.

“We have been told they are looking for anti-Trump or anti-Musk language,” said one source.

Trump officials said DOGE would look for people whose work does not align with the administration’s mission, the first two sources reported." Be careful what you say, what you type, and what you do," one manager said.

Musk has described DOGE as a tech-driven effort to make the US federal government more efficient by targeting waste, fraud, and abuse. He said the goal was to cut $1 trillion in spending or 15% of the US annual budget.

Earlier, Politico reported that Musk would soon step down as Head of DOGE. After that, Trump said he wanted Musk to remain in the role as long as possible. However, the US President added that "the time will come when he has to" step down, partly due to the other companies Musk manages.