DOGE Formation Musk Uses AI To Spy On US Government Employees, Sources Say

JAKARTA Government officials Donald Trump has informed a number of US government employees that the Elon Musk technology team who are members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor communications at at least one federal institution in the US.

This was done in order to seek indications of hostility towards President Donald Trump and his agenda, as disclosed by two sources who know this firsthand.

Although most DOGE activities are still kept secret, this monitoring will be an extraordinary use of technology to detect expressions deemed insensitive among employees, in the context of a government that has experienced many massive dismissals and cuts of the budget.

Another source said the DOGE team also used the Signal encrypted messaging app, which allows messages to be automatically deleted, so they can violate federal document storage rules.

They also "massively" use Musk's AI chatbot, Grok chatGPT's competitor in carrying out his duties to cut the federal government budget.

Unfortunately, the White House, DOGE, and Musk have yet to comment on this.

The use of AI and Signal adds to concerns among cybersecurity experts and government ethics that DOGE operates without transparency, and that Musk or Trump administration can use data collected through AI for personal gain or attack political opponents.

Total Clark, a government ethics expert from the University of Washington in St. Louis, said the use of Signal reinforces concerns about data security practices. "If they use Signal and don't back up every message to the federal archive, then they violate the law," Clark said, quoted by VOI from Reuters.

At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for example, several managers were notified by Trump officials that Musk's team would launch an AI to monitor workers, including searching for languages Trump or Musk deems hostile.

Since January, the EPA has suspended nearly 600 employees and announced a 65% reduction in the budget, which is likely to trigger additional layoffs.

Trump officials at the EPA said DOGE would monitor communications applications such as Microsoft Teams, which are commonly used for virtual calls and chats. "We were told they were looking for anti-Trump or anti-Musk languages," said a third source from the EPA.

The official also said that DOGE is looking for employees who are not in line with government missions. "Be careful with what you say, type, and do," said one manager, according to one source.

The EPA also acknowledged in a statement that it was "evaluating the use of AI to optimize administrative functions and efficiency," but denied using AI in employment decision making. The EPA did not directly respond to allegations that AI was being used to spy on employees.

Musk previously described DOGE as a technology-based effort to make the US government more efficient by cutting waste, fraud and budget abuse. He said the goal was to cut $1 trillion from federal spending about 15% of the total US annual budget.

Although the government computer system update is deemed necessary, a number of parties, including the Democratic Party, believe that DOGE and Musk are purifying the bureaucracy of non-partisan employees, and replacing it with loyalists who are willing to turn a blind eye to abuse of authority. Even some independent groups and Republicans have also criticized DOGE's actions.

Clark says surveillance like this is a form of abuse of power. "This sounds like abuse of power to suppress or prevent freedom of expression that the President does not like," he said.

Before being re-elected, Musk reportedly stated that AI could replace the work of government employees, according to someone familiar with his comments. "The idea is, by taking data from the government, they can build the most dynamic AI system ever," the source said, adding that AI could then "do the job".

As a special government employee, Musk is legally prohibited from being involved in government activities that can benefit him or his company.

Transparency Questions

Selain menggunakan Signal, beberapa staf DOGE juga diketahui menghindari proses resmi lainnya, seperti jalur distribusi dokumen pemerintahan, dengan menggunakan Google Docs secara kolaborative untuk mengedit dokumen secara real-time, kata sumber dari pejabat pemerintah.

Many people work in one Google document at once, the source said. This method is said to make DOGE work faster than usual.

The Trump administration argues that DOGE, as part of the President's Executive Office, is not subject to the law governing public access to government documents.

However, due to the unusual level of DOGE confidentiality including the use of Signal a federal judge on March 10 ordered the group to start submitting documents to ethical regulatory organizations Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which are suing under the law of freedom of information. As of Monday, CREW said it had not received a single document.

Along with the DOGE team, which mostly consists of young technologists starting to dominate government digital infrastructure, various lawsuits have begun to question Musk's authority as the richest person in the world to reshape the federal bureaucracy.

DOGE has tightened administrative controls in several agencies, blocking employee access to critical systems while making massive operational changes, a number of court sources and files said.

When Musk's team took over the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) at the end of January, they immediately closed employee access to a database containing the personal information of millions of federal employees, both active and retired.

Since then, more than 100 technical staff at the OPM have lost access to the cloud system where important applications are stored. Now only two people have access: one permanent employee, and Greg Hogan a political official who has worked at the AI startup and is now the Head of OPM Information.