Elon Musk's AI‑fueled watchdog under scrutiny for legal breaches
Elon Musk's DOGE is reportedly employing artificial intelligence to monitor the communications of U.S. government employees, according to reports from Reuters. The agency indicates that DOGE is intended to check whether government employees are speaking negatively about Donald Trump's presidency.
The DOGE team, functioning within the Trump administration, is tasked with overseeing communication in federal agencies. They use artificial intelligence to detect hostility towards the president and his policies. This technology raises significant ethical and legal concerns, as it may breach regulations concerning the storage of government documents, Reuters reports.
Expert says it's illegal
Kathleen Clark, a government ethics specialist at Washington University, explained that failing to preserve all messages in federal records while using the Signal app would constitute illegal conduct.
Furthermore, the utilisation of artificial intelligence to monitor communication for "anti-Trump" or "anti-Musk" sentiments prompts questions about abuse of power, as well as the extent to which such actions might be used to target political adversaries, the report states.
Particularly in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it has been noted that officials have been informed that DOGE uses AI to monitor communications and search for hostile comments. Sources at Reuters suggest that such actions could be seen as an attempt to silence dissenting voices and infringe on employees' rights to free speech.
In addition, the use of platforms such as Google Docs for drafting documents, without adequate verification mechanisms, raises concerns about the transparency of administrative processes and adherence to government documentation regulations. According to expert Clark, this appears to be a misuse of governmental authority aimed at restricting or discouraging speech that the U.S. president finds unfavorable.
Clark added that these measures could result in the suppression of free speech within the government, posing a threat to democratic processes.
