An inexperienced coder’s flawed AI system, deployed under the Trump administration, canceled essential veterans’ healthcare contracts, triggering widespread service disruptions and mass protests.
At a Glance
- A government AI tool mistakenly terminated critical VA contracts, disrupting key services.
- The system was developed by Sahil Lavingia, a novice coder with no healthcare expertise.
- Over 80,000 VA jobs were eliminated and hundreds of veteran-focused contracts ended.
- More than 5,000 veterans protested in Washington, D.C., against the cuts.
- Critics allege the AI-driven cuts were a step toward VA privatization.
AI Misjudgment, Real-World Fallout
In a sweeping move to modernize federal spending, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a Trump-era innovation agency, deployed an AI system to optimize Veterans Affairs (VA) contract spending. The project, led by first-time coder Sahil Lavingia, aimed to automate the review of over 50,000 contracts. But what was intended as a cost-saving breakthrough swiftly devolved into a national crisis.
The AI’s flawed logic, trained on vague and inconsistent prompts, erroneously flagged indispensable services—such as mental health counseling and hospital equipment maintenance—as “nonessential.” The fallout was immediate: contracts supporting disabled veterans, community support programs, and medical transport were canceled en masse.
Watch a report: Inside the AI prompts DOGE used to ‘munch’ contracts related to veterans’ health.
A Nation’s Veterans Push Back
The cancellations triggered an unprecedented backlash. On June 6, the anniversary of D-Day, over 5,000 veterans and advocates descended on the National Mall in protest. Chants decried what many viewed as an attempt to “privatize the VA by stealth,” fueled by a proposed $12 billion slash in public medical services even as spending on private-sector care soared by 50%.
Among the most alarming consequences was the loss of 80,000 VA support jobs. Former VA employees warned that the AI-driven cuts dismantled infrastructure that had taken decades to build. Health policy experts say the debacle underscores how automated decision-making in public health must be handled with domain expertise and transparency.
Oversight Failure Sparks Political Firestorm
The Trump administration’s decision to delegate such high-stakes evaluations to a novice coder has drawn bipartisan scrutiny. Critics argue that the DOGE agency bypassed traditional vetting and ignored red flags in its haste to showcase AI innovation. Investigations are now underway into how the system passed internal checks and what oversight mechanisms were bypassed.
Veterans groups and lawmakers are calling for an immediate rollback of the AI decisions and a halt to further VA privatization. The incident has ignited a broader conversation about the risks of blind reliance on artificial intelligence in sensitive areas of governance—where lives, not just ledgers, are at stake.
