Elon Musk's DOGE slashes $135 mn funding to fight deepfakes, misinformation

By Jackie Davalos

  Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is slashing about $135 million in funding for research grants from the National Science Foundation, a key federal agency supporting artificial intelligence development, according to people familiar with the matter and an internal document viewed by Bloomberg News. 

The cuts impact dozens of active grants, including several programmes focused on combating misinformation and AI deepfakes, according to the document. The move came after three members of DOGE began scrutinising programmes related to diversity, equity and inclusion last week, said the people, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. DOGE isn’t an official government department, but is part of the White House’s push to cut government spending.

 

The NSF will no longer fund research combating misinformation, according to the agency’s website. The realignment of its priorities is intended to adhere to President Donald Trump’s executive order in January which said such efforts could infringe on free speech. That policy shift was presaged by Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led set of proposals for a second Trump administration, which said the government has “absolutely no business policing speech.”

 

However, the decision to cancel grants for research projects aimed at detecting and preventing deepfakes came as a surprise inside the agency, the people said. The cuts risk further eroding federal support for AI safeguards at a time when AI tools are becoming increasingly capable of creating convincing fake images and text that can scam and mislead users. 

 

A spokesman for the NSF declined to comment.

 

Among the canceled grants are a $5 million programme at the University at Buffalo focused on educating older adults to recognise AI-generated online scams and a deepfake detection tool under development at the Rochester Institute of Technology, according to the document. Similar programmes at the University of South Carolina and University of Mississippi will also lose funding.

 

In February, the NSF fired 170 employees, including numerous specialists recruited for their expertise in artificial intelligence. A court subsequently ruled these firings illegal, prompting the reinstatement of 84 workers, but many AI experts have not returned to the agency, the people said. Additional cuts are expected in the coming weeks, the people added.