Inside the AI ​​of Doge at the veterans Department

“Dog’s actions at VA are at risk of veterans’ lives,” says Gerald Konoli, a ranked member of the House Supervision Committee, “says Wired. The veterans, he adds, risk being “deprived of the care they need and deserve because (President Donald) Trump and Elon have handed over to Laceys who do not know the first thing about what it means to serve your country.”

VA employees have expressed concern about the changes that Doge employees have already begun to make the agency. “These people have a zero idea of ​​what they are working for,” says an employee of VA Wired.

VA did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. Neither Volpert, Rusos, Fulcher, Rehling or Forge.

However, Lavia’s last work seemed to have informed her current perspective in VA, especially as far as AI is concerned. In a blog publication on its personal website of October 2024, Laveingia discussed how Gumroad, who fired most of his employees in 2015, achieved financial stability: “Replacing each manual process with automated, by pushing all the limit to the customer and there are almost no employees.”

“Today, people are needed for star customer service, crisis management, compliance with regulatory regulations and negotiations, property checks and more,” he writes. “But it won’t be long until AI can do everything ahead.”

Two sources familiar with Livingia’s work in VA’s note that he seems to be trying to introduce an AI tool called OpenHands to write a code for the agency. At Github Laveingia, he asked to add open hands to the repertoire of programs that could be used by VA Tech workers, and noted in Slack that it was “a priority for (head of staff) and the secretary”. (OpenHands is accessible to anyone who can download on GITHUB.)

“They asked us to consider using AI for all development contracts and justify why it can’t do it,” says the VA officer. “I think they are considering how to fill in the omissions (on canceled contracts) with AI.”

“In fact, we have no approval to use AI because there is sensitive information in some of the GITHUB reposition,” says a second VA technology worker who, like other sources, has asked to remain anonymous as they are not authorized to speak with the media. “Theoretically could check something and get a bunch of data.” Much of this data, according to the source, are stored and accessed through several interfaces for programming applications. This includes information such as the social security number of veterans and members of their families and banking information, as well as the history of medicine and disabilities.

New tools also mean new security risks. “All programming tools or applications you use in federal systems must meet a bunch of security classifications,” the source says. They are worried that the proposed use of open hands is not properly checked for governmental purposes for security gaps that could possibly leave the systems and data of VA vulnerable.

“They do not follow any of the normal procedures, and this puts it to people at risk,” they say, noting that systemic failure may impede the ability of veterans to have access to their advantages. “These are people who have given pieces of themselves and they deserve more respect than it.”