The Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, has secured unprecedented entry to no less than seven delicate federal databases, together with these of the Inside Income Service and Social Safety Administration. This entry has sparked fears about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privateness violations. One other concern has acquired far much less consideration: the potential use of the info to coach a personal firm’s synthetic intelligence techniques.
The White Home press secretary stated authorities knowledge 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 no less than one among Musk’s corporations.
As a political scientist and technologist who’s intimately acquainted with public sources of presidency knowledge, I imagine this potential transmission of presidency knowledge to personal corporations presents far larger privateness and energy implications than most reporting identifies. A personal entity with the capability to develop synthetic intelligence applied sciences may use authorities knowledge to leapfrog its rivals and wield huge affect over society.
Worth of presidency knowledge for AI
For AI builders, authorities databases characterize one thing akin to discovering the Holy Grail. Whereas corporations similar to OpenAI, Google and xAI at present depend on info scraped from the general public web, nonpublic authorities repositories supply one thing way more invaluable: verified information of precise human habits throughout total populations.
This isn’t merely extra knowledge – it’s basically completely different knowledge. Social media posts and internet shopping histories present curated or meant behaviors, however authorities databases seize actual selections and their penalties. For instance, Medicare information reveal well being care selections and outcomes. IRS and Treasury knowledge reveal monetary selections and long-term impacts. And federal employment and schooling statistics reveal schooling paths and profession trajectories.
What makes this knowledge significantly invaluable for AI coaching is its longitudinal nature and reliability. In contrast to the disordered info obtainable on-line, authorities information comply with standardized protocols, bear common audits and should meet authorized necessities for accuracy. Each Social Safety fee, Medicare declare and federal grant creates a verified knowledge level about real-world habits. This knowledge exists nowhere else with such breadth and authenticity within the U.S.
Most critically, authorities databases monitor total populations over time, not simply digitally energetic customers. They embody individuals who by no means use social media, don’t store on-line, or actively keep away from digital companies. For an AI firm, this may imply coaching techniques on the precise variety of human expertise moderately than simply the digital reflections folks forged 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 employees working there.
Al Drago/Getty Photos
The technical benefit
Present AI techniques face elementary 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 fashionable however isn’t essentially true. They will inform you what folks say a few coverage’s results, however they will’t monitor these results throughout populations and years.
Authorities knowledge may change this equation. Think about coaching an AI system not simply on opinions about well being care however on precise therapy outcomes throughout hundreds of thousands of sufferers. Think about 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 knowledge may perceive the precise relationships between insurance policies and outcomes. It may monitor unintended penalties throughout completely different inhabitants segments, mannequin advanced societal techniques with real-world validation and predict the impacts of proposed modifications based mostly on historic proof. For corporations searching for to construct next-generation AI techniques, entry to this knowledge would create an nearly insurmountable benefit.
Management of essential techniques
An organization like xAI may do way more with fashions educated on authorities knowledge than constructing higher chatbots or content material turbines. Such techniques may basically remodel – and doubtlessly management – how folks perceive and handle advanced societal techniques. Whereas a few of these capabilities might be helpful beneath the management of accountable public businesses, I imagine they pose a menace within the arms of a single non-public firm.
Medicare and Medicaid databases include information of therapies, outcomes and prices throughout numerous populations over many years. A frontier mannequin educated on new authorities knowledge may determine therapy patterns that succeed the place others fail, and so dominate the well being care trade. Such a mannequin may perceive how completely different interventions have an effect on numerous populations over time, accounting for elements similar to geographic location, socioeconomic standing and concurrent situations.
An organization wielding the mannequin may affect well being care coverage by demonstrating superior predictive capabilities and market population-level insights to pharmaceutical corporations and insurers.
Treasury knowledge represents maybe probably the most invaluable prize. Authorities monetary databases include granular particulars about how cash flows via the economic system. This contains real-time transaction knowledge throughout federal fee 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 knowledge may develop extraordinary capabilities for financial forecasting and market prediction. It may mannequin the cascading results of regulatory modifications, predict financial vulnerabilities earlier than they grow to be crises, and optimize funding methods with precision unattainable via conventional strategies.
Elon Musk’s xAI firm is properly financed.
Infrastructure and concrete techniques
Authorities databases include details about essential infrastructure utilization patterns, upkeep histories, emergency response instances and growth impacts. Each federal grant, infrastructure inspection and emergency response creates an information level that might assist prepare AI to raised perceive how cities and areas operate.
The facility lies within the potential interconnectedness of this knowledge. An AI system educated on authorities infrastructure information would perceive how transportation patterns have an effect on power use, how housing insurance policies have an effect on emergency response instances, and the way infrastructure investments affect financial growth 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 facets of city governance. When mixed with real-time knowledge from non-public sources, the predictive capabilities would far exceed what any present system can obtain.
Absolute knowledge corrupts completely
An organization similar to xAI, with Musk’s assets and preferential entry via DOGE, may surmount technical and political obstacles way more simply than rivals. Latest advances in machine studying have additionally lowered the burdens of making ready knowledge for the algorithms to course of, making authorities knowledge a veritable gold mine – one which rightfully belongs to the American folks.
The specter of a personal firm accessing authorities knowledge transcends particular person privateness considerations. Even with private identifiers eliminated, an AI system that analyzes patterns throughout hundreds of thousands of presidency information may allow stunning capabilities for making predictions and influencing habits on the inhabitants stage. The menace is AI techniques that leverage authorities knowledge to affect society, together with electoral outcomes.
Since info is energy, concentrating unprecedented knowledge within the arms of a personal entity with an specific political agenda represents a profound problem to the republic. I imagine that the query is whether or not the American folks can stand as much as the possibly democracy-shattering corruption such a focus would allow. If not, People ought to put together to grow to be digital topics moderately than human residents.
