DOGE Allegedly Misuses Defective AI Tool to Secure Veteran Affairs Contracts, Report Reveals

Employees at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used a flawed AI model to assess contracts at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), leading to the cancellation of hundreds of contracts worth millions. Under a tight 30-day deadline to respond to a directive from President Trump, engineer Sahil Lavingia rushed to develop the AI, which aimed to “munch” contracts not directly supporting patient care. However, the AI’s methodology was severely flawed, as it only analyzed the first 10,000 characters of contracts, lacked precise definitions for critical terms, and was built on an outdated model. Consequently, many essential contracts were flagged inaccurately. Experts noted that the AI couldn’t comprehend the specifics required for such evaluations. Though Lavingia acknowledged mistakes were made, he claimed all flagged contracts were vetted by others. Initially, 875 contracts were set for cancellation, but this was later revised to about 585 after pushback from veteran advocates and stakeholders.

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