For several weeks, Musk’s crew has been actively engaged in efforts to drastically reduce expenses within the US government, which has seen its annual deficit rise for the past three years. The Office of Personnel Management, essentially the HR arm of the government and filled with Musk supporters, has urged federal employees to resign if they are unable to return to the office five days a week and align with a culture of loyalty and excellence.
DOGE’s initiatives in AI are aligned with the group’s objectives to trim the federal budget and streamline current processes. For example, DOGE members at the Department of Education are reportedly leveraging AI tools to scrutinize spending and programs, as reported by the Washington Post on Thursday. A spokesperson for the department stated that the aim is to identify cost-saving opportunities.
The General Services Administration’s GSAi chatbot initiative could produce similar benefits, allowing employees, for instance, to draft memos more quickly. The agency had intended to utilize existing software like Google Gemini but ultimately concluded that it wouldn’t deliver the data quality DOGE was seeking, according to a source familiar with the project. Google’s Castañeda refrained from commenting.
However, this isn’t the only DOGE AI project that hasn’t met expectations. On Monday, Shedd highlighted the deployment of “AI coding agents” as a primary goal of the agency, based on remarks relayed to WIRED. These agents assist engineers in automatically generating, editing, and addressing queries about software code, with the aim of enhancing productivity and minimizing errors. Among the tools the team explored, as indicated by documents reviewed by WIRED, was Cursor, a coding assistant created by Anysphere, a fast-rising startup from San Francisco.
Anysphere boasts prominent investors like Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz—both of which have ties to Trump. Joshua Kushner, Thrive’s managing partner, has historically contributed to Democratic campaigns, but he is the brother of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, has stated he advises Trump on technology and energy policies.
A different individual acquainted with the General Services Administration’s tech procurement states that the agency’s IT team had initially given the green light for using Cursor, only to later retract it for further evaluation. Currently, DOGE is aiming to implement Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, the most renowned coding assistant worldwide, according to another source familiar with the agency.
Both Cursor and the General Services Administration did not respond to requests for comments. Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive declined to provide any statements.
Federal regulations require avoiding even the perception of a conflict of interest when selecting suppliers. While there haven’t been widespread concerns about Cursor’s security, federal agencies are typically obligated by law to assess potential cybersecurity risks before adopting new technologies.
The federal government’s interest in AI is not a new development. In October 2023, then-President Biden instructed the General Services Administration to prioritize security evaluations for various categories of AI tools, including chatbots and coding assistants. Yet, by the end of his administration, none had even passed the preliminary reviews within the agency, according to a former official familiar with the procedures. Consequently, no dedicated AI-assisted coding tools have received authorization under FedRAMP, a GSA program designed to centralize security evaluations and reduce the workload on individual agencies.
