Light opinion: The technological revolution of DOGE: replacing workers with a Chatbot
Elon Musk and the Government Efficiency Department are attempting to implement what some experts have dubbed the “Great Resignation,” but fear not, as they have come up with a solution to compensate for the massive reduction in personnel – a chatbot.
DOGE has provided access to around 1,500 employees of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to a custom chatbot named GSAi. Yes, the agency that has undergone significant restructuring, including the dismissal of most of its staff, now relies on a ChatGPT designed to fill the gaps left by the workforce reduction.
GSAi, which was quickly rolled out by DOGE with plans for agency-wide implementation, is designed to aid staff with various “general” tasks. However, employees were cautioned against sharing non-public or “unclassified but controlled” information with GSAi, limiting its usage for certain tasks. The chatbot’s responses have been described as “generic and predictable,” leading some to compare it to an intern.
It is worth noting that GSAi was already in development prior to Musk’s involvement, as the GSA had been collaborating with other agencies to create chatbot interfaces. These projects were initially intended to support employees, not replace them. The sudden deployment of GSAi raises questions, especially considering that some of the dismissed employees may have been involved in developing the tool.
