Elon Musk, the billionaire leader of tech companies like SpaceX and Tesla, is using artificial intelligence to cut federal spending as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. Musk’s allies in government agencies are using A.I. to identify budget cuts and detect waste and abuse, with Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer heading technology efforts at the General Services Administration, emphasizing the importance of A.I. in reducing costs.
Shedd plans to use A.I. to assess government contracts for redundancies and potential budget reductions, along with detecting fraud and waste. While both Trump and Biden administrations have expressed interest in increasing the use of A.I. in government, the effectiveness of using the technology to identify overspending or fraud remains uncertain.
Musk, known for his work with A.I. at his companies like xAI and Tesla, has warned about the potential dangers of the technology. He has sued rival company OpenAI and is pushing for cost-cutting measures in the government by identifying waste and fraud. Trump has expressed support for Musk’s efforts to reduce government spending through A.I.
Musk believes that addressing waste, fraud, and abuse in government could save up to a trillion dollars, but details on how this number was calculated remain unclear. The use of A.I. in government to cut costs and improve efficiency is being closely monitored by industry leaders and policymakers as it shapes federal policy around the technology.
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