At the VA, Lavignia attempted to use an AI tool to write code for the agency’s systems and suggested the agency move away from paper forms entirely. He built a tool to “munch” data about the agency’s contracts to identify those that could be cut.
He was fired from his role at the VA in May after he spoke to a reporter about his work at DOGE. Lavingia told WIRED at the time that he really believed in the role of technology to try and make government services better, but he quickly became disillusioned with DOGE’s lack of organization and transparency, noting that Steve Davis, Musk’s right-hand man and CEO of the Boring Company, appeared to be the only person communicating across DOGE teams at various agencies.
Through his work at the VA, Lavingia came to find that the DOGE narrative around the government as inefficient and government workers as ineffective to be largely false, noting that many problems were due not to a lack of technical expertise, but to complicated legal and policy requirements.
“The government is pretty efficient,” he said. “Could move faster.”
While the strike force that characterized DOGE’s early months has largely subsided, many DOGE operatives remain in government, often with full-time jobs inside federal agencies.
Lavingia said that he anticipates working for the government for the next 10 years, and that his work will focus on modernizing software for taxpayers. If it doesn’t work out, he said, perhaps he’ll look back and say, “I should have made a lot more money doing AI stuff.”
