The Rewiring of Social Security Admin With AI Has Begun, the Training Video Is Not Promising
gizmodo.com
Other countries have already automated their social welfare systems—with mixed results.

In recent months, Elon Musk’s DOGE has attempted to hollow out America’s federal bureaucracy. After firing droves of workers and attempting to downsize prominent agencies, the billionaire-backed effort is attempting to create a new governance model that prioritizes automation.

On Friday, Wired reported that, in a flailing attempt to modernize the agency, a new ChatGPT-style bot was integrated into agency staffers’ workflows.

The Agency Support Companion is supposed to “assist employees with everyday tasks and enhance productivity,” an internal email viewed by the magazine reads. However, the chatbot does not seem to work very well. “Honestly, no one has really been talking about it at all,” a source who works at the agency told Wired.

  • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    1 day ago

    I’m also an old person who yells, and I agree.

    Mostly, though, if we’re going to ‘modernize’ the system (with or without AI), it needs to be done smartly and methodically, and by people who aren’t philosophically opposed to Social Security’s existence.

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
      1·
      17 hours ago

      by people who aren’t philosophically opposed to Social Security’s existence

      Is nihilism a philosophy?

      • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        1 day ago

        I don’t know about the hardware, but I think the software is substantially older than that — dates back to the 1960s. I might be wrong, though, and I’m too stoned right now to Google it.