The department of government efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse responses from federal employees who were instructed to justify their jobs via email. The AI system will determine whether their work is considered essential, according to sources quoted by NBC News.
This initiative by the tech billionaire is part of a broader effort to reduce federal spending, remove inactive staff, and implement job cuts, allegedly to ‘fire’ those who do not respond before the given deadline. Federal employees were instructed to email five accomplishments from the past week, with failure to comply resulting in resignation.
AI to decide mission-critical roles
The responses, which were solicited through an email from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) over the weekend, will be fed into a Large Language Model (LLM). This advanced AI system will process the information and assess whether an employee’s role is deemed necessary.
Federal workers received the email on Saturday, just after Musk posted on X that “all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
The OPM message itself, however, did not mention resignation. Instead, it asked workers to reply with “approximately five bullets of what you accomplished last week” and to copy their manager. Employees were instructed not to include classified information, links, or attachments—something sources say was necessary to facilitate AI processing.
Second email warning
On Monday, the justice department informed its employees that responding to the email was voluntary. An internal email stated that, during a meeting with the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, OPM clarified that not replying to the request would not be considered a resignation—contrary to Musk’s original post.
Despite this, Musk doubled down on his criticism of federal workers on X, writing:
“The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?”
Later, he suggested that employees who failed to respond might receive a second email, warning:
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
Trump calls the plan ‘genius’
US President Donald Trump backed the effort on Monday, calling it a “great” move during a press event with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We have people that don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government. So by asking the question ‘tell us what you did this week,’ what he’s doing is saying are you actually working,” Trump said.
He claimed that many employees were not responding because “they don’t even exist.”
‘Against the law’
The move has sparked legal challenges. A coalition of unions and advocacy groups, already fighting the administration’s large-scale layoffs of probationary workers, has amended its lawsuit against OPM. The lawsuit argues that the directive was issued unlawfully and should be blocked.
Lawyer Norm Eisen, representing the plaintiffs, criticised the policy: “The mass firings ordered by OPM are illegal and betray the trust of countless federal employees. The patronising demand that federal workers still on the job have to justify themselves by enumerating five accomplishments just adds insult to injury. That too is against the law.”
Some government agencies, including those led by Trump allies, have advised employees to ignore the directive.
At the justice department, assistant attorney general for Administration Jolene Ann Lauria sent an internal message instructing employees that they did not need to comply, citing the “confidential and sensitive nature” of the department’s work.
“If you have already responded to this email, no further action is needed,” Lauria’s email said.