The Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, will use artificial intelligence to assess responses submitted by federal employees after they were sent an ultimatum to justify their jobs on Friday, according to a report by NBC News.
Last week, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management reportedly emailed federal workers to ask them to report their accomplishments from the previous week.
No official statement has been made by Musk, DOGE, or the OPM regarding whether AI will be used to analyze worker responses. Attempts were made to contact OPM but have so far gone unanswered.
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” the email reportedly reads. “Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments. Deadline is this Monday at 11:59 pm EST.”
Despite this, Musk took to X on Monday, calling the email request “utterly trivial.”
“The standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send,” Musk wrote. “Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers.”
While the fear of AI replacing workers is often framed as a future concern, the use of AI to determine hiring and firing decisions is already a reality.
According to a 2023 study by the Pew Research Center, 62% of Americans believe AI will have a major impact on job holders. In the survey, Pew said many were concerned about the technology being used in hiring and workplace assessment.
“They reject the idea that AI would be used in making final hiring decisions, by a ratio of roughly ten-to-one,” the Pew Research Center wrote. “A smaller plurality (41%) also opposes the use of AI in reviewing job applications.”
While it remains to be seen whether AI will decide the fate of federal workers, lawsuits against the use of AI in hiring and firing decisions have already been filed in federal court.
In 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against China-based tutoring company iTutorGroup for age discrimination.
The lawsuit alleged that the company’s AI-powered hiring system automatically rejected female applicants over 55 and male applicants over 60, violating U.S. employment laws.
The suit was settled in August 2023 after iTutorGroup agreed to pay $365,000 to over 200 job applicants who were rejected due to their age.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
