Thomas Shedd, a Musk-associate and now head of the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), told government tech workers in a meeting this week that the administration plans to widely deploy AI throughout the government. Shedd also said the administration would need help altering login.gov, a government login system, to further integrate with sensitive systems like social security “to further identify individuals and detect and prevent fraud,” which employees identified on the meeting as “an illegal task.”
Shedd, who is a former Tesla engineer, said the government should “try to get consent,” regarding login.gov changes but that “we should still push forward and see what we can do.”
WIRED and the New York Times previously reported on aspects of the meeting. 404 Media has now obtained audio of the full meeting and quotes it extensively below. Shedd told TTS workers that the administration would need help making radical changes to various government systems: “Things are going to get intense,” he said.
These potential changes, he said, would include things like creating “AI coding agents” that would write government software for many different agencies and would be trained in part on existing government contracts, larger scale automations of government, and, critically, changes to Login.gov.
“Just like a fun one that we've been thinking through with Login, specifically in TTS is, as most of you know, Login can't access government information on individuals. And so there's no connection that Login has with social security or any other government system, even though we're part of the government,” Shedd said. “And so part of one of the things to work through is how do we make it so that those agencies that has that information of very secure APIs that can be leveraged by login to further identify individuals and detect and prevent fraud?”
“I'm not saying that this is an easy task, but it is a task that's worth trying to pursue and one that only we can do as an internal team, right? We can't bring a third party in, hire them and have them work on a project like this. It has to be an internal technology team that works on this,” Shedd continued.
During a question-and-answer session, a government employee told Shedd that The Privacy Act forbids agencies sharing personal information without consent.
“I think we were on the topic of login aggregating data. It's an illegal task,” the employee question, which was read aloud by a woman facilitating the meeting, said. “The Privacy Act forbids agencies sharing personal information without consent.”
“The idea would be that folks would give consent to help with the login flow,” Shedd said. “But again, that's an example of something that we have a vision, that needs worked on, and needs clarified. And if we hit a roadblock, then we hit a roadblock. But we still should push forward and see what we can do.”
Currently, Login.gov says it is “for account access and sign in only. This account does not affect or have any information related to the specific agency you are trying to access.” A FAQ about its current integration with the Social Security Administration says a user’s “account does not affect or have any information about your Social Security card, number, or benefits. Please do not send Login.gov sensitive data about yourself or identifying numbers.”
Throughout the entire meeting, Shedd painted a vision of the federal government where a small group of coders under his leadership would revolutionize the way government works. He said, for example, that he would need help creating “AI coding agents” that would write software across the entire federal government. He proposed creating a centralized database of contracts that could be “analyzed.”
“We want to start implementing more AI at the agency level and be an example for how other agencies can start leveraging AI … that’s one example of something that we’re looking for people to work on,” Shedd said. “Things like making AI coding agents available for all agencies. One that we've been looking at and trying to work on immediately within GSA, but also more broadly, is a centralized place to put contracts so we can run analysis on those contracts.”
The comments also highlight how Musk’s allies are treating the federal government as a private company that needs to cut costs to please shareholders.
“Both what I’ve seen, and what the administration sees, is you all are one of the most respected technology groups in the federal government,” Shedd told TTS workers. “You guys have been doing this far longer than I've been even aware that your group exists.”
An employee familiar with Shedd’s comments told 404 Media that “the reaction of the team, the whole group of 18F and TTS is pretty unanimously negative.” 18F is a group within TTS that helps build software across the government. The employee said that it feels to them like 18F itself is being gutted and that the administration hopes its best coders will work for DOGE or a group that Musk has more control over: “The administration views TTS and 18F as a pool of talent that it will draw from, that it will poach from. And it will take the people from TTS that it wants, and then most of the organization will wither away.”
“We should still push forward and see what we can do.”
They said that the idea of using AI coding agents in the federal government would be a major security risk, and that training them on existing federal contracts raises red flags considering that Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, has billions of dollars worth of federal contracts. 404 Media granted the employee anonymity to talk about sensitive issues in an administration that has targeted those who speak out.
“The AI-ification of government is contradictory to security practices that have existed up to now,” the employee said. “Government software is concerned with things like foreign adversaries attempting to insert backdoors into government code. With code generated by AI, it seems possible that security vulnerabilities could be introduced unintentionally. Or could be introduced intentionally via an AI-related exploit that creates obfuscated code that includes vulnerabilities that might expose the data of American citizens or of national security importance.”
Shedd started the meeting talking about the need to shrink the government workforce, something Trump and Musk has been pushing for. That in turn creates an opportunity for more automation, Shedd said.
“Because as we decrease the overall size of the federal government, as you all know, there's still a ton of programs that need to exist, which is this huge opportunity for technology and automation to come in full force, which is why you all are so key and critical to this next phase,” he said. “It is the time to build because, as I was saying, the demand for technical services is going to go through the roof.”
“Which means things are going to get intense. Like across the board in every agency, the demand on all of us is going to go up,” he added. One employee asked if it is “currently illegal to work more than 40 hours a week. Is that going to change?”
“Unclear at this point,” Shedd said. “I think, yeah, this goes back to HR. HR guidance is the best to follow in terms of rules and official guidance.”
Other parts of the meeting focused on the now-infamous “Fork in the Road” email sent to all members of the federal government, in which the Office of Personnel Management offered buyouts that may or may not have funding. Many members of 18F and TTS work entirely remotely and near no major government office, and so workers were worried about whether they would be forced to move or would lose their jobs. The deadline to take the buyout is Thursday, a date Shedd referenced multiple times.
The work “will be intense and it will be in person,” Shedd said. “And so please think deeply about this coming Thursday and what that means for you.”
Musk is now in charge of the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, which was formerly the United States Digital Service, a group established to help the government modernize its technology under Barack Obama. Since Trump took office, several media outlets reported that Musk and a small group of young engineers from Musk’s private companies have seized control of Federal infrastructure, gaining access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, classified information at USAID, and have removed several programs or mere mentions of “DEI” across a number of government agencies and websites. 404 Media previously reported that DOGE brought in an HR consultant focused on “non-woke” DEI she says is more consistent with Christianity.
GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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