Pentagon appoints former DOGE official to lead its AI efforts

The Pentagon taps a 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, 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.