As part of President Donald Trump's effort to purge the federal government, Elon Musk has begun looking at the Department of Education to cut. To do it, he fed personally identifiable information into an AI program to have the computer decide where cuts should be made, a report suggests.
According to the Washington Post, the names, information as well as "sensitive internal financial data" was included in what was collected by Musk and his team and put into the AI. The AI will then "sift through" the names and information to identify "spending and programs" as well as "DEI initiatives," a source told the Post.
"The use of AI inside the Department of Education, which has not previously been reported, shows how Musk’s group, which includes former employees from his tech empire, is tapping the favorite tool of Silicon Valley as part of its mission to drastically slash the size and functions of the federal government," the report said, citing sources within the government.
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The report went on to say that the Musk team has been trying to replicate their efforts and methods across several departments and agencies as part of the ongoing plan to significantly reduce the staff working for the U.S. government.
Democracy advocacy groups and public employee unions took the team to court this week, asking for a temporary restraining order against acquiring personal information in government databases. The district court judge granted the order until the case is litigated and decided.
"Feeding sensitive data into AI software puts it into the possession of a system’s operator, increasing the chances it will be leaked or swept up in cyberattacks. AI can also make errors, for example, hallucinating incorrect information when summarizing data," the Post said.
The DOE was formally established and funded by Congress in 1979, though the Office of Education was founded in 1868.
