2025-03-13
Elon Musk's DOGE may well have federal agencies on the run (and rightly so), but is there another reason for Elon's time to be invested in this enterprise?
Now as with all tools invented by man, they will be imperfect in various respects and may be used for good or for ill.
Our challenge is always to avoid the worst and to promote the best.
So if Elon is successful in remaking the federal agencies operations to his liking, that isn't necessarily a bad thing overall, but it would be sensible to have the best independent minds reviewing and monitoring to ensure that the worst is avoided and the best is promoted.
The best may well include least cost - provided (big proviso!) that the service provided is an improvement over that provided by human employees.
Given that the federal shake-up (shake-down if you prefer) is likely to be very far-reaching, a period of stability under (reduced levels of) human employment would seem necessary in order to (a) establish the size and shape shape of future operational procedures and (b) establish some sort of quality benchmark for operational outcomes.
AI could then be introduced in stages in a monitored and controlled fashion to ensure that the benchmark is improved upon.
Whether that is a likely turn of events is anybody's guess at the moment, but however this is approached, America is likely to set the standard for overt use of AI in governmental operations.
All you would have to worry about then is the opportunities for corruption, which as we now see has been endemic for years in federal agencies. Twas ever thus ...
