DOGE team uses AI to track hostility to Trump and Musk among government workers: report

Elon Musk's DOGE team has been using artificial intelligence to conduct surveillance on at least one federal agency's communications for signs of disloyalty to President Donald Trump and his agenda, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Trump administration officials have told some U.S. government employees about the surveillance, the sources told Reuters.

Employees with the Department of Government Efficiency could also be in violation of federal record-keeping rules by communicating through the non-secure the Signal app, which can be set to automatically delete messages.

“If they’re using Signal and not backing up every message to federal files, then they are acting unlawfully,” said Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nearly 20 people with knowledge of DOGE operations spoke to Reuters, and two sources said some managers at the Environmental Protection Agency were told by Trump appointees that Musk's team was using AI to monitor workers for criticism of Trump or his billionaire adviser.

“We have been told they are looking for anti-Trump or anti-Musk language,” said a third source familiar with the EPA.

Trump officials told EPA managers that Musk's team was looking for individuals whose work did not align with the administration's mission, the sources said.

“Be careful what you say, what you type and what you do,” a manager told employees, according to one of the sources.

The EPA confirmed, after publication of the Reuters report, that it was using AI "to better optimize agency functions and administrative efficiencies” but disputed that the tool was being used to make personnel decisions in concert with DOGE,” although agency officials did not directly address the AI surveillance issue.

"[It] sounds like an abuse of government power to suppress or deter speech that the president of the United States doesn’t like,” said Clark, the ethics expert.

DOGE staffers are also sidestepping standard vetting processes and chains of custody for official government documents by working simultaneously out of Google Docs, a source told Reuters, instead of circulating single copies of drafts, which the source said allowed the team to work quickly.

“There's multiple people in one Google Doc editing things simultaneously,” the source said.