The Trump government wants AI to fight wars and review your taxes

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/07/14/trump-ai-government-war-taxes-jobs/

The government wants AI to fight wars and review your taxes
The Trump administration is pushing federal agencies to rapidly adopt artificial intelligence tools. Are the efficiency gains worth the risks?
By Douglas MacMillan, Faiz Siddiqui, Hannah Natanson and Elizabeth Dwoskin

Elon Musk has receded from Washington but one of his most disruptive ideas about government is surging inside the Trump administration.

Artificial intelligence, Musk has said, can do a better job than federal employees at many tasks — a notion being tested by AI projects trying to automate work across nearly every agency in the executive branch.

The Federal Aviation Administration is exploring whether AI can be a better air traffic controller. The Pentagon is using AI to help officers distinguish between combatants and civilians in the field, and said Monday that its personnel would begin using the chatbot Grok offered by Musk’s start-up, xAI, which is trying to gain a foothold in federal agencies.

Artificial intelligence technology could soon play a central role in tax audits, airport security screenings and more, according to public documents and interviews with current and former federal workers.

If AI drives federal decision-making instead of aiding human experts, glitches could unfairly deprive people of benefits or harm public safety, said Elizabeth Laird, a director at the Washington-based nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology.

There is “a fundamental mismatch” between what AI can do and what citizens expect from government, she said.

President Joe Biden in 2023 signed an executive order aimed at spurring government use of AI, while also containing its risks. In January, President Donald Trump repealed that order. His administration has removed AI guardrails while seeking to accelerate its rollout.

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