U.S. Pentagon taps former DOGE official to lead its AI efforts

The Pentagon on Friday 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 U.S. 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 U.S. surveillance. The Pentagon has pushed back, saying it ‌should be able to use this technology as needed, so long as it complies with U.S. ​law.