This is one of the best account I've seen about what DOGE is actually
doing, practically and strategically. It's a first hand account of
someone deeply involved in government AI.
The key sentences are:
"Lately the AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism.
Together, these two faiths crave the end of American liberal democracy
and government."
and the final paragraph.
Felix
PS: as an added benefit, I learned about https://carhenge.com/
https://carhenge.club/@skiles/114203147063483693
Mar 22, 2025, 01:02
I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out
to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of
the others they've fired.
It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the
process is fascinating. I worked on a tool we called the AI sandbox. Our
goal: let federal software devs test out AI tools in a safe way, to
discover if they have any use. Renamed GSAi, the tool has been claimed
by DOGE. It is being rolled out on an alarming accelerated schedule.
No one from the new admin wrote a single line of code for it. But GSAi
has become their proud "AI-first strategy." (Previously at my job,
rather than AI or any tech we put *people* first. See 18F's work on
"human-centered design.")
As my coworker explains in this demo, we knew AI's capability is limited
"The principle is to show you *not* that AI is great for everything, not
to try to encourage you to stick AI into every product.... You can get
yourself into trouble thinking that it can do things that it can't."
As a fed, I am accustomed to knowledgeable and diverse coworkers who
don't get snookered by the latest buzzwords. But yesterday at GSA
headquarters, 6 white guys in suits (one without a tie!) took the stage.
They demo'd GSAi like it was pure magic to them. [1]
While saying "this is incredible" over and over, Musk's GSA head Stephen
Ehikian asked GSAi to "write me a website." The output was not compliant
with federal law. It said "Welcome to Our Company" on it and did not
resemble a federal website at all.
π This garbage demo had a terrified audience
One viewer said "if this is the tool meant to replace us, thank God".
Everyone is afraid for their jobs, their projects, and their democracy.
There is a widespread impression that AI is supposed to replace the
people who are fired.
I actually don't think that's the plan. Let me explain:
There is a quasi-religion in Silicon Valley that views AI as godlike.
This faith has always been parallel to Evangelical Christianity: it has
salvation (transhumanism), the rapture (the technological singularity),
and demons (Roko's Basilisk)
Lately the AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism.
Together, these two faiths crave the end of American liberal democracy
and government. You can smell it at GSA.
They won't replace us with AI because ππππ π
ππ'π ππππ ππ
πππππππ ππ ππ πππ. They want our work to end. DOGE is
firing us as fast as possible, and that is the whole plan.
Listen: maybe I'm wrong and this is just the worst software deployment
of my career, not actually a conspiracy against democracy.
Maybe these guys just don't see they are frittering away all product and
service design knowledge in the agency. And don't even know that they
lack this knowledge.
Honestly: From the 2013 failure of healthcare.gov to today, the
government *almost* learned how to build software. We were close. Then a
bunch of white men in suits swooped in to snatch defeat from the jaws of
victory.
Maybe they are just incompetent. But I think it's worse than that.
On stage, Ehikian asked GSAi to "write me a plan to rewrite the FAR"
The FAR, Federal Acquisition Regulations, are laws that control how the
gov't buys stuff. They are legendary in their complexity for a good
reason: to prevent corruption. To protect taxpayer money from theft by
beltway bandits.
The AI's "plan" to simplify the FAR was generic and unusable, of course.
But it is a subject that Ehikian and DOGE keep returning to:
Contracting. Acquisition. The money.
They want to file the corners off of the process that regulates
government spending. They want to consolidate all government contracts
in one place. And put AI in charge.
I believe the firings and the AI have the same purpose: to get humans
out of the loop of evaluating contracts. To automate the process of
spending government money. To rig up a computer that sends taxpayer
dollars directly to the broligarchy. And to make sure democracy can't
switch that computer off.
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/gsa-staff-all-hands-meeting-ai/
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