Pentagon taps former DOGE official to lead its AI efforts

The Pentagon named as Chief Data Officer ​a computer scientist who aided billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to ‌overhaul the government last year and who has boosted white supremacists and misogynists online.

In a social media post, the Pentagon said Gavin Kliger’s new role “places him at the center of the Department’s most ​ambitious AI efforts,” focusing on “day-to-day alignment and execution of the Department’s ​AI projects, working directly with America’s frontier AI labs to ⁠support the warfighter.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for ​more comment. Kliger did not immediately return a message.

Kliger, in social media posts between ​October 2024 and January 2025, has voiced controversial views and reposted content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.

The Pentagon’s use of AI has taken center ​stage after a heated weeks-long dispute with Anthropic over guardrails on how the ​military can use its AI tools led to last week’s decision by the Trump administration to ‌shun ⁠the company and replace it with OpenAI.

On Thursday, the Pentagon slapped a formal supply-chain risk designation on Anthropic – an extraordinary rebuke by the United States against an American tech company that was earlier than its rivals to work ​with the Pentagon.

Anthropic was ​the most aggressive ⁠of its rivals in courting US national-security officials. But the company and the Pentagon have been at odds for ​months over how the military can use its technology on ​the battlefield. ⁠This conflict erupted into public view earlier this year.

Anthropic has refused to back down on bans for its Claude AI to power autonomous weapons and mass ⁠US surveillance. ​The Pentagon has pushed back, saying it ​should be able to use this technology as needed, so long as it complies with US law. Reuters