Dems fret over DOGE feeding sensitive data into random AI
(2025/04/18)
- Reference: 1745003215
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/18/house_democrats_doge/
- Source link:
A group of 48 House Democrats is concerned that Elon Musk's cost-trimmers at DOGE are being careless in their use of AI to help figure out where to slash, creating security risks and giving the oligarch's artificial intelligence lab an inside track to train its models on government info.
Led by Representatives Don Beyer (D-VA), Mike Levin (D-CA), and Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), the Dems wrote a [1]stern letter to the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), saying that [2]DOGE 's reported use of AI runs afoul of several federal laws and the OMB's own AI directives, and is unlikely to be in compliance with [3]FedRAMP standards for cloud software security.
Beyond that, the Reps believe Musk, who as well as SpaceX and Tesla runs [4]OpenAI rival xAI , is self-dealing by using his own Grok-2 AI model to ingest government data.
[5]
"It is clear that DOGE's use of AI clearly does not meet the standards the previous memoranda set," the Dems said. "We ask that you immediately terminate any use of AI systems that have not been approved … or that do not comply with existing laws."
[6]
[7]
The letter lists a number of instances where DOGE, in the Democrats' view, played fast and loose with AI in government agencies.
One such complaint involves a White House-based DOGE aide, doing double duty as a SpaceX employee, who [8]reportedly created a chat-based AI assistant powered by xAI's Grok-2 - and hosted it on a subdomain of his personal website. The bot was programmed to "assist government personnel in identifying waste and improving efficiency."
[9]
In another instance, the Dems aren't happy about a [10]report that a DOGE AI chatbot built on Anthropic and Meta models was used to analyze government contract data at the US General Services Administration, ostensibly giving government contractor Elon Musk access to competition insights.
We cannot sacrifice security, privacy, and appropriate use standards when interacting with federal data
More generally, the Democrats are worried about the sheer privacy and security risk of feeding sensitive government data, potentially including personally identifiable information about government employees and financial data, into uncontrolled and unvetted external AI systems.
"Without proper protections, feeding sensitive data into an AI system puts it into the possession of a system's operator — a massive breach of public and employee trust and an increase in cybersecurity risks surrounding that data," the letter reads.
That said, the memo's signatories don't want to come across as total AI alarmists.
"While we support the federal government integrating new, approved AI technologies that can improve efficiency or efficacy, we cannot sacrifice security, privacy, and appropriate use standards when interacting with federal data," they argue in the letter.
[11]
In short, feel free to use AI to streamline the work process - but for pete's sake, do it properly. The letter closes with a list of blunt questions for the Republican regime, including whether DOGE is using AI, and if so, which models and how.
This isn't the first letter Dems have sent on the subject. Representative Gerald Connolly (D-VA) fired off [12]letters to two dozen federal agencies in March asking them to explain whether DOGE was feeding government data into unapproved AI models. Connolly, who's also a signatory on this latest letter, cited the exact same trio of laws in his letter that Beyer and company suspected DOGE of breaking - the Privacy Act of 1974, the Federal Information Security Management Act, and the E-Government Act of 2002 - and was concerned about lack of FedRAMP approval as well.
A spokesperson for Rep Beyer's office told The Register that, if the letter doesn't result in an immediate end to unauthorized DOGE AI deployments, "Congressman Beyer may consider further action."
[13]Whistleblower describes DOGE IT dept rampage at America's labor watchdog
[14]Self-driving car maker Musk's DOGE rocks up at self-driving car watchdog, cuts staff
[15]DOGE dilettantes 'didn't test' Social Security fraud detection tool at appropriate scale
[16]Musk's DOGE muzzled on X over tape storage baloney
DOGE – which is the Trump-blessed unit of operatives scouring the federal government for spending cuts to recommend – has faced a number of legal challenges, and has at least once been forced to [17]slow down and do things by the book. Earlier this week, a judge partly lifted a federal injunction and allowed one DOGE staffer to access sensitive data at the US Treasury after he went through the training and vetting required for federal employees.
OMB didn't respond to questions for this story. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://beyer.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6476
[2] https://search.theregister.com/?q=DOGE
[3] https://www.fedramp.gov/rev5/cloud-service-providers/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/xai_acquires_x/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/elon-musk-staffer-created-a-doge-ai-assistant-for-making-government-less-dumb/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.wired.com/story/gsai-chatbot-1500-federal-workers/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/13/democrat_letter_doge_ai_use/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/17/whistleblower_nlrb_doge/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/11/doge_nhtsa_audit/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/09/social_security_website/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/08/doge_tape_storage_diss/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/15/doge_access_to_treasury_systems/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Led by Representatives Don Beyer (D-VA), Mike Levin (D-CA), and Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), the Dems wrote a [1]stern letter to the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), saying that [2]DOGE 's reported use of AI runs afoul of several federal laws and the OMB's own AI directives, and is unlikely to be in compliance with [3]FedRAMP standards for cloud software security.
Beyond that, the Reps believe Musk, who as well as SpaceX and Tesla runs [4]OpenAI rival xAI , is self-dealing by using his own Grok-2 AI model to ingest government data.
[5]
"It is clear that DOGE's use of AI clearly does not meet the standards the previous memoranda set," the Dems said. "We ask that you immediately terminate any use of AI systems that have not been approved … or that do not comply with existing laws."
[6]
[7]
The letter lists a number of instances where DOGE, in the Democrats' view, played fast and loose with AI in government agencies.
One such complaint involves a White House-based DOGE aide, doing double duty as a SpaceX employee, who [8]reportedly created a chat-based AI assistant powered by xAI's Grok-2 - and hosted it on a subdomain of his personal website. The bot was programmed to "assist government personnel in identifying waste and improving efficiency."
[9]
In another instance, the Dems aren't happy about a [10]report that a DOGE AI chatbot built on Anthropic and Meta models was used to analyze government contract data at the US General Services Administration, ostensibly giving government contractor Elon Musk access to competition insights.
We cannot sacrifice security, privacy, and appropriate use standards when interacting with federal data
More generally, the Democrats are worried about the sheer privacy and security risk of feeding sensitive government data, potentially including personally identifiable information about government employees and financial data, into uncontrolled and unvetted external AI systems.
"Without proper protections, feeding sensitive data into an AI system puts it into the possession of a system's operator — a massive breach of public and employee trust and an increase in cybersecurity risks surrounding that data," the letter reads.
That said, the memo's signatories don't want to come across as total AI alarmists.
"While we support the federal government integrating new, approved AI technologies that can improve efficiency or efficacy, we cannot sacrifice security, privacy, and appropriate use standards when interacting with federal data," they argue in the letter.
[11]
In short, feel free to use AI to streamline the work process - but for pete's sake, do it properly. The letter closes with a list of blunt questions for the Republican regime, including whether DOGE is using AI, and if so, which models and how.
This isn't the first letter Dems have sent on the subject. Representative Gerald Connolly (D-VA) fired off [12]letters to two dozen federal agencies in March asking them to explain whether DOGE was feeding government data into unapproved AI models. Connolly, who's also a signatory on this latest letter, cited the exact same trio of laws in his letter that Beyer and company suspected DOGE of breaking - the Privacy Act of 1974, the Federal Information Security Management Act, and the E-Government Act of 2002 - and was concerned about lack of FedRAMP approval as well.
A spokesperson for Rep Beyer's office told The Register that, if the letter doesn't result in an immediate end to unauthorized DOGE AI deployments, "Congressman Beyer may consider further action."
[13]Whistleblower describes DOGE IT dept rampage at America's labor watchdog
[14]Self-driving car maker Musk's DOGE rocks up at self-driving car watchdog, cuts staff
[15]DOGE dilettantes 'didn't test' Social Security fraud detection tool at appropriate scale
[16]Musk's DOGE muzzled on X over tape storage baloney
DOGE – which is the Trump-blessed unit of operatives scouring the federal government for spending cuts to recommend – has faced a number of legal challenges, and has at least once been forced to [17]slow down and do things by the book. Earlier this week, a judge partly lifted a federal injunction and allowed one DOGE staffer to access sensitive data at the US Treasury after he went through the training and vetting required for federal employees.
OMB didn't respond to questions for this story. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://beyer.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6476
[2] https://search.theregister.com/?q=DOGE
[3] https://www.fedramp.gov/rev5/cloud-service-providers/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/xai_acquires_x/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/elon-musk-staffer-created-a-doge-ai-assistant-for-making-government-less-dumb/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.wired.com/story/gsai-chatbot-1500-federal-workers/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aALLiQBpX0ATvI-CtBn4xwAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/13/democrat_letter_doge_ai_use/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/17/whistleblower_nlrb_doge/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/11/doge_nhtsa_audit/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/09/social_security_website/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/08/doge_tape_storage_diss/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/15/doge_access_to_treasury_systems/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Ace2
I’ll feel better about America when Elon Musk is dead.
scottro
Blame the congress--if the GOP had any sense of shame, conscience, intelligence (see MTG) or courage, this wouldn't be permitted--we thought we had it bad in Nixon's day, but the Trump tards seem to think it's a good thing.
Why no one has gone to jail for some of the illegal deportations is another thing we should be ashamed over--if they put an ICE agent in jail for every illegal deportation, it might stop it.
On Shame
Eclectic Man
if the GOP had any sense of shame
Ahem:
shame
/ʃeɪm/
noun
1.
a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour.
(Definition for Oxford Languages: https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/ )
Frankly I think that the decent Republicans (and I am sure there are actually quite a lot, well, quite a few, well, some of them) are possibly still in shock at 'what they have done' in letting Trump get a second term.
BTW, Trump has done his first* 'hire and fire' https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/18/trump-irs-gary-shapley
"Trump ousts IRS chief days after appointment amid Musk-Bessent feud"
*Possibly there first one, I am not aware of any others, please advise if otherwise.
A1
Eclectic Man
It is not AI, it is A1, see the US Education Secretary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsRUk0dMJu4
I mean, I thought this was a joke, until I saw it.
America isn't a democracy any more
Anonymous Coward
If no one had yet realised, America is now a dictatorship. The leaders are responsible to no one apart from their own gratification. They ignore laws and arrest people for saying the wrong thing - all classic signs.
Great Deal
$250 million for all the government's data and the ability to fire the regulators of your businesses / end investigations. Blow up a rocket, don't get grounded, blow up the next one the exact same way and still not grounded.