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President Donald Trump’s administration is embracing AI. According to reports, agencies are using the technology to identify places to cut costs, figure out which employees can be terminated, and comb through social-media posts to determine whether student-visa holders may support terror groups. And as my colleague Matteo Wong reported this week, employees at the General Services Administration are being urged to use a new chatbot to do their work, while simultaneously hearing from officials that their jobs are far from secure; Thomas Shedd, the director of the GSA division that produced the AI, told workers that the department will soon be “at least 50 percent smaller.”

This is a haphazard leap into a future that tech giants have been pushing us toward for years. Work is being automated, people are losing their jobs, and it’s not at all clear that any of this will make the government more efficient, as Elon Musk and DOGE have promised.

Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: pressureUA / Getty; Thanasis / Getty.

DOGE’s Plans to Replace Humans With AI Are Already Under Way

By Matteo Wong

A new phase of the president and the Department of Government Efficiency’s attempts to downsize and remake the civil service is under way. The idea is simple: use generative AI to automate work that was previously done by people.

The Trump administration is testing a new chatbot with 1,500 federal employees at the General Services Administration and may release it to the entire agency as soon as this Friday—meaning it could be used by more than 10,000 workers who are responsible for more than $100 billion in contracts and services. This article is based in part on conversations with several current and former GSA employees with knowledge of the technology, all of whom requested anonymity to speak about confidential information; it is also based on internal GSA documents that I reviewed, as well as the software’s code base, which is visible on GitHub.

Read the full article.

What to Read Next

Elon Musk looks desperate: “Musk has wagered the only thing he can’t easily buy back—the very myth he created for himself,” Charlie Warzel writes. Move fast and destroy democracy: “Silicon Valley’s titans have decided that ruling the digital world is not enough,” Kara Swisher writes.

P.S.

The internet can still be good. In a story for The Atlantic’s April issue, my colleague Adrienne LaFrance explores how Reddit became arguably “the best platform on a junky web.” Reading it in between editing stories about AI, I was struck by how much of what Adrienne described was fundamentally human: “There is a subreddit where violinists gently correct one another’s bow holds, a subreddit for rowers where people compare erg scores, and a subreddit for people who are honest-to-God allergic to the cold and trade tips about which antihistamine regimen works best,” she writes. “One subreddit is for people who encounter cookie cutters whose shapes they cannot decipher. The responses reliably entail a mix of sincere sleuthing to find the answer and ridiculously creative and crude joke guesses.” How wholesome!

— Damon

This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here.

TikTok is an AI app. Not an “ask a bot to do your homework” kind of AI app, but an AI app all the same: Its algorithm processes and acts upon huge amounts of data to keep users engaged. Without that fundamental, freakishly well-tuned technology, TikTok wouldn’t really be anything at all—just another video or shopping platform.

The app is set to be banned in the United States, following a decision by the Supreme Court earlier today. But the legacy of its algorithm will live on, as my colleague Hana Kiros wrote in an article for The Atlantic yesterday: “Although it was not the first app to offer an endless feed, and it was certainly not the first to use algorithms to better understand and target its users, TikTok put these ingredients together like nothing else before it.” The app was so effective—so sticky—that every meaningful competitor tried to copy its formula. Now TikTok-like feeds have been integrated into Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, X, even LinkedIn.

Today, AI is frequently conflated with generative AI because of the way ChatGPT has captured the world’s imagination. But generative AI is still a largely speculative endeavor. The most widespread and influential AI programs are the less flashy ones quietly whirring away in your pocket, influencing culture, business, and (in this case) matters of national security in very real ways.

Illustration by The Atlantic

The Internet Is TikTok Now

By Hana Kiros

There are times when, deep into a scroll through my phone, I tilt my head and realize that I’m not even sure what app I’m on. A video takes up my entire screen. If I slide my finger down, another appears. The feeling is disorienting, so I search for small design cues at the margins of my screen. The thing I’m staring at could be TikTok, or it could be one of any number of other social apps that look exactly like it.

Although it was not the first app to offer an endless feed, and it was certainly not the first to use algorithms to better understand and target its users, TikTok put these ingredients together like nothing else before it. It amassed what every app wants: many users who spend hours and hours scrolling, scrolling, scrolling (ideally past ads and products that they’ll buy). Every other major social platform—Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, X, even LinkedIn—has copied TikTok’s format in recent years. The app might get banned in the United States, but we’ll still be living in TikTok’s world.

Read the full article.

What to Read Next

I’m scared of the person TikTok thinks I am: “TikTok’s recommendation algorithm is known for its accuracy and even its ‘magic,’” Kaitlyn Tiffany wrote for The Atlantic in 2021. “What does it mean if the videos it picks for you are totally disgusting?” Critics of the TikTok bill are missing the point: “America has a long history of shielding infrastructure and communication platforms from foreign control,” Zephyr Teachout wrote in March.

P.S.

Algorithmic feeds obviously have a profound effect on how people receive information today. That can be troubling in times of disaster and political strife. As Charlie Warzel wrote for The Atlantic yesterday, “The experience of logging on and consuming information through the algorithmic morass of our feeds has never felt more dispiriting, commoditized, chaotic, and unhelpful than it does right now.”

— Damon