ChatGPT Told Musk's DOGE a Museum Heating Grant Was DEI

Court filings reveal that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used ChatGPT to screen federal humanities grants for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content. The chatbot flagged a museum’s $349,000 HVAC grant as DEI.

The screening is detailed in a lawsuit accusing DOGE of violating First Amendment and equal-protection rights through cuts to National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants.

DOGE’s Money Saving Mandate

DOGE launched as a White House advisory group, not a formal agency, on Trump’s first day in office. Musk served as its de facto leader until leaving in May 2025.

As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025

By November 2025, DOGE had stopped operating as a centralized entity, according to Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor.

How the ChatGPT Screening Worked

According to a spreadsheet entered as evidence, DOGE staffers Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh prompted ChatGPT to judge whether NEH proposals related to DEI. They then acted on its answers.

The High Point Museum in North Carolina sought funds to replace an aging system that preserves its collections. ChatGPT said the upgrade would help more visitors and tagged the proposal DEI.

DOGE cancelled the grant. However, the museum’s director, Edith Brady, told Fortune it recovered about 70% of the award through a termination clause.

DOGE flagged only two of the 11 HVAC-related proposals it reviewed as DEI. The other came from Vermont’s Shelburne Museum, seeking help with climate-related building risks. ChatGPT tagged it for addressing environmental sustainability in heritage preservation.

Letting AI Do The Work

The pattern was not isolated. DOGE reviewed 1,163 NEH grant proposals through ChatGPT, flagging 1,057 and keeping just 42. The cuts erased roughly half the agency’s annual budget.

Meanwhile, acting NEH chairman Michael McDonald said that many targeted projects were harmless in terms of promoting DEI. That suggests deficit reduction, not ideology, partly drove the cuts.

Four scholarly and literary groups, including the American Historical Association and the Authors Guild, are suing over the cuts. The case may test whether outsourcing DEI judgment calls to an AI chatbot survives legal scrutiny.