Elon Musk’s AI Participates in US Government Reform

A high-ranking employee of Elon Musk’s companies has developed a specialized AI chatbot for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), using xAI technologies to optimize government administration, as TechCrunch has learned.

The chatbot, publicly available until Tuesday on a DOGE subdomain of Christopher Stanley’s website, SpaceX’s head of security and White House employee, was deactivated shortly after the investigation was published.

The system, calling itself “AI Assistant of the Department of Government Efficiency,” is built on xAI’s Grok-2. The chatbot is positioned as a tool to help government employees identify inefficient spending and optimize processes.

The technical architecture of the solution represents a modified language model trained on DOGE’s key objectives, including five “guiding principles.” Among them are simplifying government requirements and eliminating redundant processes.

Analysis of the system’s operation revealed a characteristic feature: the chatbot consistently applies these principles to a wide range of questions. For example, responding to a query about 20th-century political leaders, the system highlighted Margaret Thatcher and Lee Kuan Yew as “excellent models for DOGE” due to their focus on “efficiency, simplification, and use of technology.”

However, the system demonstrates several problems, including the typical “hallucination” of language models – generation of fictitious data. When requesting information about DOGE employees, the chatbot created non-existent names and positions. Cases of unrealistic recommendations were also noted, for example, suggesting USAID use drones and wearable devices to increase efficiency.

The technology’s implementation raises questions about potential conflicts of interest: the use of xAI API by government employees could directly increase Musk’s company’s revenue. xAI representatives were unavailable for comment.

DOGE is actively implementing AI as part of US government administration modernization. According to Wired, the agency is also developing a separate AI chatbot for the General Services Administration, the agency that oversees government procurement.