Washington postThe briefing shows that the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is currently actively promoting a regulatory review program assisted by AI technology. Through an analytical tool called "DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool", it reviews more than 20 current federal regulations and makes "deletion recommendations."
The report pointed out that the AI tool of the U.S. Department of Digital Governance and Efficiency has marked about 10 regulations (about half of the total) as "deletable items". The goal is for federal agencies to use this tool to complete a preliminary list of what to remove before September 9 this year. After that, the U.S. Department of Digital Governance and Efficiency will conduct subsequent integration and compile the final version of the deletion list.
The tool uses semantic analysis technology to determine which laws and regulations are no longer legally effective or no longer necessary to be retained due to changes in the times, and then provides them to various departments for subsequent manual review. The U.S. Department of Digital Governance and Efficiency stated in an internal briefing: "The tool can complete the screening of various departments within four weeks and quickly produce deletion suggestions."
Currently, this tool has been tested in the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The CFPB claims that all of its recent regulatory relief operations were drafted by this tool, while the Department of Housing and Urban Development has reviewed more than 1083 regulations through the system. However, the Washington Post quoted three employees of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, one of whom pointed out that the AI tool had repeatedly misunderstood legal provisions and even suggested deleting regulatory items that were actually still legally binding.
The U.S. Department of Digital Governance and Efficiency said it will begin training other federal departments to use the tool at the end of July and help implement automated regulatory review processes. Although this move has potential advantages for administrative efficiency, it has also raised concerns among some legal and civil groups, who worry that AI's involvement in regulatory judgment will lead to risks such as accidental deletion and insufficient supervision.
In addition, the outside world is also worried that the US digital governance and efficiency department's strong push for 50% regulation reduction in a short period of time may bring structural changes to many key areas such as finance, real estate, environment, and health. Especially when some regulations involve cross-departmental coordination or affect state-level powers and responsibilities, if not handled with caution, it may lead to a policy vacuum or law enforcement chaos.
At present, the U.S. Department of Digital Governance and Efficiency has not disclosed the specific operation mode or algorithmic basis of the tool. It only stated that it will continue to invite third-party legal experts and scholars to participate in model optimization and result review to ensure that the deletion actions do not violate the current legal basis.
This project is still in its early stages of promotion, but it has already reflected the US government's recent tendency to introduce AI tools to simplify administrative processes and assist in data decision-making. If the project is ultimately successful, it may also become a reference sample for the digitalization of global government governance in the future.
