Pentagon Hires DOGE Stooge to Run AI Efforts Amid Iran War
One of Elon Musk’s former DOGE minions has been hired to lead AI at the Pentagon.
In a post onThe Department of Defense announced Friday that it was naming Gavin Kliger, who last year worked in the Office of Personnel Management to help purge the federal workforce, as chief data officer, “a role that places him at the center of the department’s most ambitious AI efforts.”
“We are in a global competition for dominance in military AI, and America must rely on its leadership to extend its advantage over its adversaries,” Kliger said in the post. “My mission is to integrate unprecedented innovation from America’s private sector with the Department’s operational expertise to rapidly deliver advanced AI capabilities to our warfighters. By pursuing innovative projects in the urgency of wartime, we will ensure that cutting-edge technology translates into decisive battlefield advantages for the United States.”
Kliger’s past with DOGE was not pretty. He was assigned to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help DOGE take over and dismantle the supervisory agency. Kliger held up to $365,000 worth of stock in seven CFPB-regulated companies, including Tesla, Apple, Alphabet, Alibaba and Berkshire Hathaway, as well as two cryptocurrencies. When CFPB lawyers told him that this was prohibited for agency employees, he fired the lawyers.
Kliger also has a questionable track record on social media. Reuters reported last year that he reposted content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and misogynist Andrew Tate, and expressed racist as well as xenophobic views about immigrants. Now he will work with AI as the Pentagon continues Donald Trump’s reckless war against Iran.
DOD Already Using AI to Help Plan airstrikes in Iran despite a ongoing impasse between the Trump administration and the Anthropic AI laboratory. The company insists that Claude, its generative AI model, is not part of autonomous weapon systems and seeks assurances that Claude would not contribute to mass surveillance of U.S. citizens.
But now, someone who had few, if any, ethical qualms about racism, bigotry, misogyny or the purge of government employees will be the focus of AI’s wartime efforts. Kliger will probably be happy to help bomb Iran without worrying about innocent lives.
