The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, will begin using artificial intelligence to evaluate the performance of American civil servants and decide whether their work is important enough for the US government, NBC News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Elon Musk previously said that all federal employees would be sent a letter demanding a weekly report on their work. He also said that ignoring the letter could be grounds for dismissal. Later, employees were reassured that there would be no layoffs, and many department heads, including the Justice Department, advised employees not to respond to requests from the Office of Human Resources, which were sent at the request of DOGE and Musk.
However, it became known that in these letters, civil servants were asked not to attach files or links, but only to describe the work done in a five-point list, in which they would state the main points. According to people close to the matter, such requirements for a response are due to the fact that they want to give these letters to artificial intelligence for evaluation.
Departments have reportedly been notified by the Office of Personnel Management that participating in the survey and responding to the letters is not a mandatory requirement. Meanwhile, Elon Musk in X expressed his disappointment that many civil servants took the opportunity to ignore the letters and compared the US government to the Twitter team.
"The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent? Makes old Twitter look good. Didn’t think that was possible." Musk wrote in a post on X.
In another post on X, he also said that civil servants who did not respond to the first letter would get another chance and once again threatened them with dismissal. "Failure to respond a second time will result in termination," the billionaire said.
The Human Resources Department did not respond to a request for comment on whether real people would be involved in reviewing government employee emails, and the White House declined to comment. Meanwhile, DOGE and Musk have previously been accused of using artificial intelligence to analyze sensitive government information. According to sources familiar with the matter, AI has already been used to review spending by the U.S. Department of Education.