On the 8th, Reuters raised the suspicion, citing multiple sources.
Trump-appointed employees have reportedly warned existing EPA employees that DOGE is AI-monitoring apps and programs, including Microsoft Teams, a collaborative tool that officials use to work.
They reportedly hinted that AI is being used to uncover critical remarks about President Trump or Musk among the conversations of government officials. A source told Reuters, “We heard they were looking for anti-Trump or anti-Musk rhetoric.” EPA, the agency in charge of environmental protection law enforcement in the U.S., has been hit by massive job cuts and budget cuts since the Trump administration took office.
Since President Trump’s inauguration, the EPA has sent out more than 600 employees and has announced that it will cut 65% of its budget.
Since the report, the EPA has said in a statement to Reuters that it is “looking at AI to optimize the agency’s function and administrative efficiency,” but that it is not using AI for “personnel decisions in consultation with DOGE.”
However, it did not directly disclose whether AI was used to monitor employees.
In the meantime, Musk’s DOGE team is also reportedly communicating through “Signal,” a private chat app that has recently been controversial that a high-ranking security line of the Trump administration leaked military secrets.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, Reuters pointed out that Signal’s use of the conversation may violate the U.S. federal government’s principle of preserving records because the conversation disappears after a certain period of time. The source also said that DOGE used Groch, an AI chatbot developed by Musk, “very much” in the process of large-scale job cuts of federal government officials.
In this regard, the White House, DOGE and Musk did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Reuters pointed out that the use of AI and signals by the DOGE team hinders DOGE’s work transparency and raises concerns that Musk and President Trump could use information collected by AI for personal gain or as a means of attacking political opponents.
Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at the University of Washington, told Reuters that “it sounds like the president is abusing government power to prevent or suppress words and actions that he does not like.”
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
