Elon Musk At Milken Conference: AI Will Replace Bloated, Inefficient Federal Gov’t

Since President Donald Trump took office in mid-January, the Trump administration has employed Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to streamline government operations. This initiative eliminates redundancies, fraud, and waste while leveraging artificial intelligence to automate and reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies.

On Sunday, Elon Musk attended the closed-door Milken Institute Global Conference, where he provided further details on deploying AI to eliminate government inefficiencies, potentially replacing some public sector workers, according to Bloomberg, citing an attendee of the prestigious conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

Musk told financier Michael Milken at the closed-door event, which tickets start at $25,000 and features high-level individuals, including US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, and Citadel’s Ken Griffin, how AI will replace some of the federal government’s workforce. 

Musk also spoke about his brain implant company, Neuralink, and the development of Starship at his rocket company, SpaceX.

DOGE and the Trump administration bet that AI can replace a sizeable portion of the government workforce—particularly those in administrative, data processing, and customer service roles—to dramatically reduce federal payroll costs, eliminate inefficiencies, and modernize public services. 

Last week, the latest data from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed the government had led all sectors in job cuts this year, with 281,452 of those cuts attributed to DOGE-related cost-cutting.

Jobless Claims Jumped Last Week As ‘DOGE Actions’ Spark Biggest YTD Layoffs Since 2020 https://t.co/mPjuSJiyAH

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 1, 2025

In an interview, late last week on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, DOGE staffer Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” described some shocking examples of waste and mismanagement by unaccountable bureaucrats. 

EXCLUSIVE: @elonmusk and the @DOGE boys EXPOSE reckless spending at the @usedgov. Caesars Palace and stadiums were being rented out for parties on YOUR dime. pic.twitter.com/pShztaGrT5

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) May 2, 2025

Yet efforts to eliminate waste and fraud from the federal government have been met with intense opposition from the Democratic Party as the era of unchecked spending ends.