TL;DR
- DOGE has deployed an AI Deregulation Decision Tool to review ~200,000 U.S. federal rules.
- The tool aims to eliminate 50% of regulatory mandates within one year of Trump’s second term.
- Pilot testing has already been conducted at HUD and CFPB.
- The tool’s use comes amid scrutiny over previous AI tools that delivered flawed outputs.
- Critics warn the plan could destabilize regulatory frameworks without careful legal oversight.
Trump Administration Bets Big on AI to Cut Red Tape
A bold new strategy by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is attempting to use artificial intelligence to eliminate half of all U.S. federal regulations. According to a PowerPoint presentation dated July 1 and obtained by The Washington Post, the tool—called the DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool—is designed to rapidly evaluate more than 200,000 federal regulatory mandates.
The core mission: identify which regulations are no longer legally required and remove them. The effort is being fast-tracked to align with the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s return to office, potentially serving as a headline achievement of his administration’s deregulatory agenda.
Pilot Programs Already in Motion
DOGE has reportedly begun using the AI tool at two federal agencies:
- At the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the tool was applied to review all existing mandates.
- At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the presentation claims the AI has already written “100% of deregulations.”
These early deployments suggest the tool is already playing a direct role in shaping administrative outcomes, despite no formal policy approval being granted by the White House.
“No single plan has been approved or greenlit,” a White House spokesperson told The Washington Post, adding that the DOGE team represents “the best and brightest in the business.”
What the AI Deregulation Plan Involves
| Metric | Detail |
| Tool Name | DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool |
| Total Rules Analyzed | ~200,000 federal regulations |
| Goal | Eliminate 50% of mandates by 2026 |
| Agencies Already Involved | HUD, CFPB |
| Criticism | Risk of hallucination and legal overreach |
| Source | Washington Post |
DOGE’s Risky AI History
This isn’t DOGE’s first venture into AI-powered governance. The department, initially led by Elon Musk during the early months of Trump’s second administration, has a track record of pushing ambitious automation efforts. One prior AI system, tasked with estimating Veterans Affairs contract values, was criticized for generating inaccurate or hallucinatory outputs—raising red flags over the reliability of DOGE’s tools.
Observers say applying a similar model to deregulation could result in unintended legal and economic consequences, particularly if the tool misclassifies active regulations as obsolete.
Legal, Ethical, and Political Ramifications
The attempt to decouple large volumes of regulation via AI without due legislative process has already prompted concern from legal scholars and policy experts. The federal regulatory code often enforces health, safety, environmental, and labor protections, many of which are statutory obligations that require Congressional changes, not just executive action.
Moreover, the move mirrors broader trends where AI tools are being used to shape government policy, even as many of these tools remain opaque and untested in real-world governance.
Final Thoughts
DOGE’s AI Deregulation Decision Tool represents a high-stakes experiment in automated governance. While the ambition to streamline bureaucracy is not new, the use of machine learning to effectively rewrite or remove laws on such a massive scale is unprecedented.
The White House may be downplaying formal authorization for now, but given the scale of potential impact, Congress, civil society, and legal watchdogs are likely to push back if regulations vanish without due process.
