Musk's team is 'hunting opposition' with artificial intelligence in U.S. institutions.

According to sources, EPA officials appointed by President Donald Trump warned employees that the DOGE team was monitoring communications on software such as Microsoft Teams.

Some officials from the Trump administration alleged that the Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) founded by Elon Musk used artificial intelligence to monitor the communications of federal agencies. According to the claim, Musk's unit used this technology to detect rhetoric hostile to Trump and his policies. Two sources speaking to Reuters stated that this surveillance occurred during a period when layoffs and budget cuts were taking place, especially under the Trump administration. There are also claims that the DOGE team used the end-to-end encrypted Signal application for communication, thereby violating federal record rules. It is alleged that the "disappearing messages" feature prevents these communications from entering official archives. Additionally, it was noted that Musk's developed AI chatbot, Grok, was heavily utilized in efforts to downsize the operations of federal agencies. Cybersecurity experts are concerned that such applications lack transparency and that the collected information could be used to serve the political interests of Trump or Musk. Specifically, some managers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were reported to have been informed that the DOGE team had set up AI systems to detect anti-Trump or anti-Musk statements in employee communications. It is known that, in line with the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back environmental policies, 600 EPA employees were put on leave and a 65% budget cut was planned. According to sources, EPA officials appointed by Trump warned employees that the DOGE team was also monitoring software like Microsoft Teams. They reportedly cautioned, "Be careful what you say, what you write, and what you do." Hundreds of pages of documents obtained from lawsuits regarding Musk's unit show that the group employed methods that deviated from traditional rules in federal administration. It is reported that the agency's documents were prepared through simultaneous editing by many people via Google Docs, thereby acting outside of official procedures. On the other hand, this unit claims it is not subject to public document request laws because it is affiliated with the U.S. Presidential Office. However, a federal judge ruled in March that DOGE needed to share some documents with the public. It was reported that after Musk's DOGE team took over the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the agency, which handles the government's human resources, closed access to a database that provided access to personal information of millions of employees to agency staff. Currently, it is said that only two people have access to this data: one is a senior public employee, and the other is Greg Hogan, who previously worked at an AI startup and is now the head of IT at OPM. Musk had previously argued that AI could replace government employees. However, according to ethical rules, Musk, as a government employee, is prohibited from engaging in activities that would benefit his own companies.