Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Working on a Custom Chatbot Called GSAi The chatbot is part of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s ambitions to use AI and other technologies to cut costs and modernize the US government.
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A U.S. judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's proposed buyout for federal workers until at least Monday, giving an initial win to labor unions that sued to stop it.
Even as the program was stayed, more than 60,000 federal employees have already accepted the buyout offer, a White House source told Reuters.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge George O'Toole in Boston pushes back a midnight deadline set by the Trump administration, which is pressuring federal workers to leave their jobs in an unprecedented drive to overhaul the federal government.
O'Toole could opt to delay the buyout further or block it on a more permanent basis when he next considers the legal challenge by the unions at a hearing on Monday. The White House said employees could submit plans to leave through 11:59 pm. ET Monday.
The buyout effort is part of a far-reaching plan by President Donald Trump and his allies to both rein in and reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, which Trump blames for stymieing his agenda during his first presidential term.
As part of that effort, the Trump White House is amid a dramatic downscaling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes humanitarian aid around the world.
The administration plans to keep fewer than 300 out of the agency's worldwide total of more than 10,000, four sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Trump's buyout proposal has upended Washington, sparking street protests and accusations by labor unions and opposition Democrats that the Republican president is violating multiple laws.
Federal employees were asked to indicate they wanted to take part by typing RESIGN into the subject line of an email from their government accounts.
The offer promises to pay employees' regular salaries and benefits until October without requiring them to work, but that may not be ironclad. Current spending laws expire on March 14 and there is no guarantee that salaries will be funded beyond that point.
The Education Department told staffers that those who accepted the buyout could see their paychecks stop at any time, media outlets reported. Labor unions and Democrats have said the offer is not trustworthy.
Some federal employees said they were heartened by Thursday's court ruling.
"It's a glimmer of hope that the courts might help us and block the whole resignation program," said an employee at the General Services Administration, which manages federal properties.
ANOTHER LAWSUIT
Trump has tasked the world's richest person, Elon Musk, to oversee a drastic slashing of the government workforce. As part of that effort, staffers working for Musk have sought access to government personnel files and payment records at several agencies, raising privacy and security concerns.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said she and seven other Democratic state attorneys general would sue to stop Musk's quasi-governmental "Department of Government Efficiency" from accessing sensitive data.
Item 1 of 3 U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks as demonstrators rally during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump and the actions he has taken in the first weeks of his presidency, outside of the Department of Labor in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
[1/3]U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks as demonstrators rally during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump and the actions he has taken in the first weeks of his presidency, outside of the Department of Labor in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
"The president does not have the power to give away our private information to anyone he chooses," she said in a statement.
The White House says it is following through on Trump's campaign promise to cut wasteful spending and slim down a bureaucracy that many conservatives see as left-leaning and unresponsive to the president's agenda.
60,000 ACCEPT OFFER SO FAR
Some federal workers say they are operating in a climate of fear and uncertainty.
Workers said they were downloading pay and benefits records that they feared could be erased from government computers as they weighed whether to take a buyout deal that might not be honored or stay on with the knowledge they could be fired.
"In the hall,s most people are stopping to ask one another what their decision will be, with many people saying they are scared because we are caught between two bad choices and very little time to make the decision," said one Treasury Department executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The 60,000 or so who plan on accepting the buyout constitute a little more than 2.5% of the 2.3 million federal workforce. It was unclear from which agencies those employees are leaving.
Roughly 6% of federal workers retire or resign in a typical year, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.
The administration has told workers they could lose their jobs if they do not accept the buyout. Federal workers say they have been told to brace for dramatic cuts.
"We were told that nothing that is happening is normal and the goal is to reduce the workforce as fast as possible," said an executive at the Internal Revenue Service.
The White House continues to target new categories of workers for potential dismissal.
The Trump administration sent a new memo on Thursday to agency heads across the government ordering them to provide by March 7 a list of all employees who received less than a “fully successful” performance rating in the past three years.
The memo said barriers should be eliminated so agencies can “swiftly terminate poor performing employees.”
The White House has also sought to identify workers hired within the last two years, who lack full civil-service protections and would be easier to fire.
It has also ordered agency officials to identify those appointed by Trump's predecessor, former President Joe Biden, who remain in civil-service jobs, as well as those who have received poor performance ratings.
The Wall Street Journal reported the White House is planning to order the Food and Drug Administration and other health-care agencies to fire thousands of workers. The White House denied the report.
I'll rewrite this article while maintaining its key information and narrative structure. I'll focus on clarity and providing relevant context where helpful.
Elon Musk's Recently Established Government Division Pushes for Custom AI Development
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is actively working to develop a specialized artificial intelligence chatbot called "GSAi" for the United States General Services Administration (GSA). This initiative aligns with President Donald Trump's broader vision of modernizing federal operations through advanced AI technology.
The GSAi project, previously undisclosed to the public, serves two primary purposes. First, it aims to enhance the productivity of the GSA's 12,000-person workforce, who oversee critical federal operations including office building management, contract administration, and IT infrastructure maintenance. Second, the project seeks to leverage AI capabilities for analyzing extensive procurement and contract data, according to sources who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of their positions.
Thomas Shedd, who previously worked at Tesla and now directs the GSA's Technology Transformation Services, provided insight into the project during a recent meeting. According to an audio recording obtained by WIRED, Shedd explained that while the concept of centralized contract analysis isn't new, the current approach differs in its emphasis on rapid, in-house development. This strategy reflects a broader interest in gaining a deeper understanding of government spending patterns.
The decision to create a custom AI solution came after the GSA explored potential partnerships with Google regarding their Gemini AI platform. This development occurs against the backdrop of shifting federal technology policies. While the Biden administration had advocated for careful consideration before adopting emerging technologies, the Trump administration has taken a markedly different approach, actively removing barriers to what it terms "global AI dominance."
The rapid technological transformation has generated mixed responses. While Trump supporters generally welcome these changes, various stakeholders including federal employees, labor unions, Democratic lawmakers, and civil society organizations have raised concerns about the pace and potential constitutional implications of these reforms. Recent developments suggest some internal reconsideration of this aggressive approach, as DOGE reportedly paused the implementation of at least one AI tool this week.
These AI initiatives complement DOGE's broader mission to reduce federal spending and streamline government processes. Similar efforts are underway at other agencies, including the Department of Education, where AI tools are being employed to evaluate spending patterns and program effectiveness.
The GSAi chatbot project represents a significant shift from initial plans to utilize existing commercial solutions like Google Gemini. The agency determined that developing a custom solution would better serve their data analysis needs. Alongside this chatbot development, the agency has explored other AI technologies, particularly in software development. One such tool under consideration was Cursor, a coding assistant from Anysphere, a San Francisco startup backed by prominent investors including Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz - firms with connections to Trump's circle.
However, the implementation of these tools hasn't been straightforward. After initially approving Cursor, the GSA's IT team withdrew their approval for additional review. The agency is now considering Microsoft's GitHub Copilot as an alternative, though this decision also raises questions about federal procurement regulations and potential conflicts of interest.
The government's relationship with AI technology has evolved significantly. Under the Biden administration, the GSA was tasked with security reviews for various AI tools, though none completed the preliminary review process before the end of his term. Despite this, several federal departments have begun exploring AI coding tools, including GitHub Copilot and Google's Gemini.
These developments reflect the ongoing tension between rapid technological advancement and the traditional careful approach to government technology adoption. While five major companies, led by Microsoft, currently dominate federal software spending, the success of newer entrants like Cursor faces challenges related to government certification requirements and resource constraints typical of startup companies.
The White House has not yet commented on these developments.
The Trump administration presented a plan Thursday to dramatically cut staffing worldwide for U.S. aid projects as part of its dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, leaving fewer than 300 workers out of thousands.
Late Thursday, federal workers associations filed suit asking a federal court to stop the shutdown, arguing that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to shut down an agency enshrined in congressional legislation.
Two current USAID employees and one former senior USAID official told The Associated Press of the administration’s plan, presented to remaining senior officials of the agency Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to a Trump administration order barring USAID staffers from talking to anyone outside their agency.
The plan would leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of what are currently 8,000 direct hires and contractors. They, along with an unknown number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run the few life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to keep going for the time being.
It was not immediately clear whether the reduction to 300 would be permanent or temporary, potentially allowing more workers to return after what the Trump administration says is a review of which aid and development programs it wants to resume.
The administration earlier this week gave almost all USAID staffers posted overseas 30 days, starting Friday, to return to the U.S., with the government paying for their travel and moving costs. Workers who choose to stay longer, unless they received a specific hardship waiver, might have to cover their own expenses, a notice on the USAID website said late Thursday.
“But it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest,” he told reporters.
The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who is running a budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have targeted USAID hardest so far in an unprecedented challenge to the federal government and many of its programs.
Since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, a sweeping funding freeze has shut down most of the agency’s programs worldwide, and almost all of its workers have been placed on administrative leave or furloughed. Musk and Trump have spoken of eliminating USAID as an independent agency and moving surviving programs under the State Department.
Democratic lawmakers and others call the move illegal without congressional approval.
The same argument was made by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees in their lawsuit, which asks the federal court in Washington to compel the reopening of USAID’s buildings, return its staffers to work, and restore funding.
Government officials “failed to acknowledge the catastrophic consequences of their actions, both as they pertain to American workers, the lives of millions around the world, and to US national interests,” the suit says.
