Inside DOGE’s AI Push at the Department of Veterans Affairs

“DOGE's actions astatine the VA are putting veterans' lives astatine risk,” typical Gerald Connolly, ranking subordinate of the House Oversight Committee, tells WIRED. Veterans, helium adds, hazard being “stripped of the attraction they request and merit due to the fact that [President Donald] Trump and Elon person turned the VA implicit to lackeys who bash not cognize the archetypal happening astir what it means to service your country."

VA employees person expressed interest astir the changes the DOGE staffers person already started to marque to the agency. “These radical person zero hint what they are moving on,” a VA worker tells WIRED.

The VA did not instantly respond to a petition for comment. Neither did Volpert, Roussos, Fulcher, Rehling, oregon Koval.

Lavingia’s past work, however, appears to person informed his contiguous outlook astatine the VA, particularly erstwhile it comes to AI. In a blog station connected his idiosyncratic website from October 2024, Lavingia discussed however Gumroad, which laid disconnected astir of its employees successful 2015, had achieved fiscal stability: “replacing each manual process with an automated one, by pushing each marginal costs to the customer, and having astir nary employees.”

“Today, humans are indispensable for stellar lawsuit service, situation management, regulatory compliance and negotiations, spot inspections, and more,” helium wrote. “But it won't beryllium agelong until AI tin bash each of the above.”

Two sources acquainted with Lavingia’s enactment astatine the VA enactment that helium appears to beryllium trying to present an AI instrumentality called OpenHands to constitute codification for the agency. In GitHub, Lavingia requested to adhd OpenHands to the repertoire of programs that tin beryllium utilized by VA tech workers, and noted successful Slack that this was “a precedence for the [chief of staff] and Secretary.” (OpenHands is disposable for anyone to download connected GitHub.)

“They’ve asked america to see utilizing AI for each improvement contracts and person america warrant wherefore it can’t bash it,” says the VA employee. “I deliberation they are considering however to capable the gaps [of canceled contracts] with AI.”

“We don’t truly person support to usage AI due to the fact that determination is delicate info successful immoderate of the GitHub repos,” says a 2nd VA tech idiosyncratic who, similar different sources, asked to stay anonymous due to the fact that they’re not authorized to speech to the media. “Theoretically it could publication thing and propulsion retired a clump of data.” Much of that data, according to the source, is stored and accessed done respective exertion programming interfaces. This includes accusation similar the societal information numbers of veterans and their household members and slope information, arsenic good arsenic aesculapian and disablement history.

New tools besides mean caller information risks. “Any programming tools oregon applications that you usage successful national systems person to conscionable a clump of information classifications,” the root says. They interest that the projected usage of OpenHands has not been decently vetted for authorities purposes for information gaps that could perchance permission the VA’s systems and information vulnerable.

“They’re not pursuing immoderate of the mean procedures and it’s putting radical astatine risk,” they say, noting that a strategy nonaccomplishment could impede veterans’ quality to entree their benefits. “These are radical who person fixed pieces of themselves to their state and they merit much respect than that.”