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Is Grok running DOGE? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-21
A version of the Grok2 xAI chatbot was on Christopher Stanley's website until Tuesday when it disappeared. It was at doge.stanley.me. It billed itself as Department of Government Efficiency AI Assistant. Publicly available, it was discovered by TechCrunch.
Christopher Stanley works for DOGE, as well as for X as head of security engineering, and at SpaceX as the principal security engineer. A TechCrunch hierarchical graph shows him to be both a senior figure as well as a worker bee at DOGE. The only one classed that way. He says he has a masters degree in computer science with a specialization in cybersecurity. I think we've got the individual responsible for the DOGE.gov website.
The opening page has a bug I've discovered. Occasionally when you hit the home page, there is the heading "Latest Work," with a feed from the DOGE X account, but it's completely blank. Go somewhere else and come back and the feed is back.
If Stanley is behind the webpage, then as an expert, how did these things happen to the webpage?
#1
#2
#3
Security not so good, eh?
What we'll never know now is how much the Chatbot was used, the results, and if it is now somewhere else upgraded to Grok 3.
The folks at TechCrunch asked the AI Chatbot : "What is the mission of DOGE?," and got this;
The section on "Automate: makes me wonder who's running the show.
"We implement automation wherever possible, using technology to reduce manual work and ensure consistent, repeatable processes."
"Make requirements less dumb," is a heading that gives away the mindset of DOGE. Apparently their requirements have been very stupid to spit this out first.
When TechCrunch asked what 20th century politicians DOGE should emulate, it came up with U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The guiding factors must have been about austerity spending goals. But the Chatbot said it was for "efficiency, simplification, and use of technology."
The Chatbot also showed a problem with all large language models of hallucination. Refusing to name workers at DOGE at first, it then made up names and positions.
DOGE has made clear it wants to use AI in the government and, according to Wired, is working on a custom generative Chatbot for the General Services Administration called GSAi. With a budget of $61 billion, is the GSA a target, or will the Chatbot ferret out the best deals for the $66 billion dollars in procurement each year, along with managing buildings and the federal motor pool of 215,000 vehicles? With DOGE involved, it would be both.
Federal workers could start their day looking at this screen:
The next thing they would think is if the answer would lose them their job.
Donald Trump has made clear with executive orders and fact sheets that he wants the U.S. to be the leader in AI technology. He wants $500 billion invested in a project named Stargate, partnering with OpenAi , Oracle, and Softbank. Notice that there was no mention of Musk's xAi.
I'm not serious about Grok actually running the whole DOGE and pony show. But it was available and being used. Is it why the DOGE decisions have been so badly damaging, such as firing employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration that maintains the stockpile of nuclear weapons? And nobody bothered to look at their webpage just to find out what they did?
Artificial intelligence is a tool. It should not be the master. How much DOGE is using it, and depending on it, everyone would like to know.
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