Exclusive: Elon Musk staffer created a DOGE AI assistant for making government “less dumb”
Feb 18, 2025 - techcrunch.com
A senior staffer at SpaceX and the White House, Christopher Stanley, has developed a custom AI chatbot aimed at helping the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reduce government waste. Powered by Elon Musk’s AI company xAI, the chatbot is publicly accessible and hosted on a DOGE-named subdomain on Stanley's website. The chatbot, known as the “Department of Government Efficiency AI Assistant,” uses xAI’s Grok 2 and is designed to assist government personnel in identifying and eliminating waste by applying five guiding principles focused on efficiency and simplification. It has recommended actions such as removing bureaucratic layers in USAID and emulating leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Lee Kuan Yew for their focus on efficiency and technology.
The chatbot, however, faces challenges common to large language models, such as hallucination, and has provided odd advice like suggesting the use of drones and wearables for USAID. There are concerns about potential conflicts of interest, as the use of xAI could increase its revenue through API usage by government workers. DOGE is reportedly also developing another AI chatbot for the General Services Administration. The article raises questions about the legal and privacy implications of these AI-driven cost-cutting efforts and whether they align with DOGE's goals.
Key takeaways:
A senior Elon Musk staffer has created a custom AI chatbot to help the Department of Government Efficiency eliminate government waste, powered by Musk’s xAI.
The chatbot is hosted on a DOGE-named subdomain and is publicly accessible, but its experimental status and use by DOGE are unclear.
The chatbot uses five guiding principles to recommend efficiency improvements, citing leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Lee Kuan Yew as models.
There are concerns about potential conflicts of interest with xAI and issues with the chatbot, such as hallucinations and odd advice.
