Government by AI: DOT Plans to Use Google Gemini to Write Regulations

According to meeting notes reviewed by ProPublica, DOT general counsel Gregory Zerzan said Trump is “very excited about this initiative.” He also indicated the agency is the proving ground for a broader federal initiative, telling staffers DOT is the “point of the spear” and “the first agency that is fully enabled to use AI to draft rules.”

Per the notes, Zerzan emphasized that the goal is speed and the quantity of rules, not necessarily their accuracy or suitability. “We don’t need the perfect rule on XYZ. We don’t even need a very good rule on XYZ. We want good enough,” he’s recorded as saying, adding “We’re flooding the zone.”

We’d love to be your preferred source for news.

Please add us to your preferred sources list so our news, data and interviews show up in your feed. Thanks!

Add as Preferred Source

The presenter in the December meeting claimed AI could handle 80% to 90% of the work of writing regulations with DOT staffers doing the rest and providing oversight.

Related: Google Asks Judge to Pause Data-Sharing Order While Appealing Antitrust Ruling

The plan alarmed some DOT staffers who spoke with ProPublica. They noted that crafting federal regulations is necessarily intricate work, requiring subject-matter expertise as well as knowledge of existing statutes and case law, and is governed by legally proscribed procedures. Federal law also requires that regulations must stem from reasoned, non-arbitrary judgment. Leaving the process to a technology noted for errors and hallucinations, the staffers said, could lead to lawsuits and even injuries or deaths due to poorly drafted or vague rules.

DOT regulations, the staffers noted, touch nearly every aspect of transportation, from air-safety to hazardous material transport to highway travel.  “It seems wildly irresponsible,” one staffer said. DOT’s own former acting chief AI officer, Mike Horton, also criticized the plan. It’s like “having a high school intern that’s doing your rulemaking,” he said.

Ben Winters, the AI and privacy director at the Consumer Federation of America, called the plan especially problematic given the loss of many subject-matter experts from government as a result of DOGE-driven workforce reductions last year. DOT has had a net loss of nearly 4,000 of its 57,000 employees since Trump returned to the White House, according to federal records, including more than 100 attorneys.

Nonetheless, the plan appears to be a high priority for the administration. Streamlining the rulemaking process could further its goal of paring down and speeding up the often-sluggish federal bureaucracy. The White House is also particularly keen to inject AI into government processes.

In July, The Washington Post reported on a leaked DOGE presentation that called for using AI to eliminate half of all federal regulations, and to do so in part by having AI draft regulatory documents, ProPublica noted. DOGE’s AI program “automatically drafts all submission documents for attorneys to edit,” the presentation said.