The Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, has secured unprecedented entry to at the very least seven delicate federal databases, together with these of the Inner Income Service and Social Safety Administration. This entry has sparked fears about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privateness violations. One other concern has obtained far much less consideration: the potential use of the info to coach a non-public firm’s synthetic intelligence techniques.
The White Home press secretary stated authorities information that DOGE has collected isn’t getting used to coach Musk’s AI fashions, regardless of Elon Musk’s management over DOGE. Nonetheless, proof has emerged that DOGE personnel concurrently maintain positions with at the very least one in all Musk’s firms.
As a political scientist and technologist who’s intimately acquainted with public sources of presidency information, I imagine this potential transmission of presidency information to non-public firms presents far higher privateness and energy implications than most reporting identifies. A personal entity with the capability to develop synthetic intelligence applied sciences might use authorities information to leapfrog its opponents and wield huge affect over society.
Worth of presidency information for AI
For AI builders, authorities databases symbolize one thing akin to discovering the Holy Grail. Whereas firms comparable to OpenAI, Google and xAI at present depend on info scraped from the general public web, nonpublic authorities repositories supply one thing rather more worthwhile: verified information of precise human habits throughout complete populations.
This isn’t merely extra information – it’s essentially completely different information. Social media posts and net looking histories present curated or supposed behaviors, however authorities databases seize actual selections and their penalties. For instance, Medicare information reveal well being care decisions and outcomes. IRS and Treasury information reveal monetary selections and long-term impacts. And federal employment and schooling statistics reveal schooling paths and profession trajectories.
What makes this information significantly worthwhile for AI coaching is its longitudinal nature and reliability. In contrast to the disordered info accessible on-line, authorities information observe standardized protocols, bear common audits and should meet authorized necessities for accuracy. Each Social Safety cost, Medicare declare and federal grant creates a verified information level about real-world habits. This information exists nowhere else with such breadth and authenticity within the U.S.
Most critically, authorities databases observe complete populations over time, not simply digitally lively customers. They embody individuals who by no means use social media, don’t store on-line, or actively keep away from digital providers. For an AI firm, this is able to imply coaching techniques on the precise range of human expertise relatively than simply the digital reflections individuals solid on-line.
A safety guard prevented U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., from coming into an EPA constructing on Feb. 6, 2025, to see DOGE workers working there.
Al Drago/Getty Photos
The technical benefit
Present AI techniques face basic limitations that no quantity of knowledge scraped from the web can overcome. When ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini make errors, it’s actually because they’ve been educated on info that may be in style however isn’t essentially true. They’ll let you know what individuals say a couple of coverage’s results, however they will’t observe these results throughout populations and years.
Authorities information might change this equation. Think about coaching an AI system not simply on opinions about well being care however on precise remedy outcomes throughout hundreds of thousands of sufferers. Take into account the distinction between studying from social media discussions about financial insurance policies and analyzing their actual impacts throughout completely different communities and demographics over many years.
A big, state-of-the-art, or frontier, mannequin educated on complete authorities information might perceive the precise relationships between insurance policies and outcomes. It might observe unintended penalties throughout completely different inhabitants segments, mannequin complicated societal techniques with real-world validation and predict the impacts of proposed adjustments primarily based on historic proof. For firms searching for to construct next-generation AI techniques, entry to this information would create an virtually insurmountable benefit.
Management of important techniques
An organization like xAI might do way more with fashions educated on authorities information than constructing higher chatbots or content material mills. Such techniques might essentially remodel – and doubtlessly management – how individuals perceive and handle complicated societal techniques. Whereas a few of these capabilities might be helpful below the management of accountable public businesses, I imagine they pose a menace within the palms of a single non-public firm.
Medicare and Medicaid databases include information of remedies, outcomes and prices throughout numerous populations over many years. A frontier mannequin educated on new authorities information might establish remedy patterns that succeed the place others fail, and so dominate the well being care business. Such a mannequin might perceive how completely different interventions have an effect on varied populations over time, accounting for components comparable to geographic location, socioeconomic standing and concurrent situations.
An organization wielding the mannequin might affect well being care coverage by demonstrating superior predictive capabilities and market population-level insights to pharmaceutical firms and insurers.
Treasury information represents maybe essentially the most worthwhile prize. Authorities monetary databases include granular particulars about how cash flows by means of the financial system. This contains real-time transaction information throughout federal cost techniques, full information of tax funds and refunds, detailed patterns of profit distributions, and authorities contractor funds with efficiency metrics.
An AI firm with entry to this information might develop extraordinary capabilities for financial forecasting and market prediction. It might mannequin the cascading results of regulatory adjustments, predict financial vulnerabilities earlier than they grow to be crises, and optimize funding methods with precision unimaginable by means of conventional strategies.
Elon Musk’s xAI firm is properly financed.
Infrastructure and concrete techniques
Authorities databases include details about important infrastructure utilization patterns, upkeep histories, emergency response instances and improvement impacts. Each federal grant, infrastructure inspection and emergency response creates an information level that might assist practice AI to raised perceive how cities and areas operate.
The facility lies within the potential interconnectedness of this information. An AI system educated on authorities infrastructure information would perceive how transportation patterns have an effect on vitality use, how housing insurance policies have an effect on emergency response instances, and the way infrastructure investments affect financial improvement throughout areas.
A personal firm with unique entry would acquire distinctive perception into the bodily and financial arteries of American society. This might enable the corporate to develop “smart city” techniques that metropolis governments would grow to be depending on, successfully privatizing points of city governance. When mixed with real-time information from non-public sources, the predictive capabilities would far exceed what any present system can obtain.
Absolute information corrupts completely
An organization comparable to xAI, with Musk’s assets and preferential entry by means of DOGE, might surmount technical and political obstacles way more simply than opponents. Latest advances in machine studying have additionally diminished the burdens of getting ready information for the algorithms to course of, making authorities information a veritable gold mine – one which rightfully belongs to the American individuals.
The specter of a non-public firm accessing authorities information transcends particular person privateness issues. Even with private identifiers eliminated, an AI system that analyzes patterns throughout hundreds of thousands of presidency information might allow stunning capabilities for making predictions and influencing habits on the inhabitants stage. The menace is AI techniques that leverage authorities information to affect society, together with electoral outcomes.
Since info is energy, concentrating unprecedented information within the palms of a non-public entity with an express political agenda represents a profound problem to the republic. I imagine that the query is whether or not the American individuals can stand as much as the possibly democracy-shattering corruption such a focus would allow. If not, Individuals ought to put together to grow to be digital topics relatively than human residents.