The US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has reportedly deployed a custom chatbot to 1,500 federal workers in a bid to automate certain tasks previously done by humans.
The proprietary chatbot, dubbed GSAi, is tailored in a way that makes it safe for government use, according to WIRED. It is designed to support “general” jobs much like commercial generative AI tools such as ChatGPT.
The move comes as DOGE continues to cut federal employees under the leadership of Elon Musk.
Chatbot can draft emails, summarize text and write code
The chatbot has apparently been in development for several months, with DOGE first testing it in January through a pilot with 150 users within the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages government real estate and certain IT efforts.
An internal memo about the product suggests employees can use the chatbot for drafting emails, creating talking points, summarizing text and writing code. It also warns employees not to type or paste federal non-public information such as work products, emails, photos, videos, audio and conversations that are meant to be pre-decisional or internal to GSA as well as personally identifiable information as inputs, WIRED claimed.
The GSA is one of a number of government agencies that has been impacted by DOGE-directed layoffs. Last month, the agency dismissed more than 1,000 employees, setting future goals to cut staff by 63 percent in its Public Building Service division. DOGE has also closed the GSA technology consulting unit, 18F, which had a staff of 90 to 100 technology researchers, website designers and product managers.
DOGE likely views the automation of certain processes as a step that helps justify the spate of firings while also boosting the productivity and efficiency of remaining government workers.
Some processes are ripe for automation
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