Elon Musk’s team behind DOGE — «Department of Government Efficiency» — is working not only to cut costs, but also to monitor surveillance.
Anonymous sources claim that DOGE is launching artificial intelligence to monitor communications between federal agency employees. They are looking for «hostility» to Donald Trump or his initiatives. All this activity of DOGE, which has become part of the Trump administration, is surrounded by a thick veil.
But something is known through sources, for example, DOGE is monitoring employees at the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The department uses AI to check messages in Microsoft Teams and other programs. They were explicitly told that they were looking for anti-Trump or anti-Musk statements
«Be careful what you say, what you type and what you do», — the manager told the EPA workers.
Musk’s department actively uses the Signal app, where messages disappear. But other government officials have been involved in a Signal scandal, when a journalist was accidentally added to a chat room discussing strikes on Yemeni Houthis. Government officials did not get confused and blamed the iPhone for everything.
And, of course, Grok AI, which Musk calls a competitor to ChatGPT, is also used. Reuters was not able to find out how Grok is used, but it sounds like it has become part of DOGE’s work on «optimizing» government processes.
«If they’re using Signal and not backing up every message to federal files, then they are acting unlawfully», — says Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert.
DOGE also actively avoids conventional document management: instead of official copies, they use Google Docs, which are edited by several people at the same time. This speeds up the work, but is not very transparent. But the Trump administration believes that DOGE is not subject to open government records laws.
The court has already forced DOGE to hand over the records to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics organization in Washington, which filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act. But as of recent days, the documents have not been handed over.
DOGE doesn’t just monitor – it changes the way entire agencies work. In January, Musk’s team took control of OPM, the government’s personnel agency, and denied employees access to a database with sensitive information on tens of millions of people. Only two people were left with access: one civil servant and a political appointee with experience in AI startups.
All of this raises many questions. Even before Trump’s election, Musk said that AI could replace government employees. One of the interlocutors explained that there was an idea to train the model on government data and make «the most dynamic artificial intelligence system in history». Then it would be able to «do the work of» people. Meanwhile, Musk said he needs a gaming PC in the DOGE office to search for inefficient employees in the US government. Other results of the work — found magical computers that sent money from nowhere.
In theory, it’s effective, but in practice, it means manual management, tracking disloyalty, and replacing people with bots. And while most agree that the U.S. public sector needs to be revamped — even Republicans believe that DOGE goes too far.
According to Kathleen Clark, all this sounds like an abuse of state power to suppress or restrain speech that the US president does not like. Because of this policy, Trump has already 75% of scientists want to leave, and by Large-scale rallies were held in the United States, Canada and Europe.