Amid the chaos and turmoil at the Social Security Agency (SSA) caused by Elon Musk’s so-called Ministry of Government Efficiency (DOGE), employees are now asked to integrate their daily tasks using generated AI chatbots.
But before any of them can use it, they all need to watch a four-minute training video containing an animation, a style that is roughly drawn by a four-fingered woman that won’t look out of place on websites created early this century.
In addition to the graphics used in the Web 1.0 era, the video also failed for its primary purpose, namely, informing SSA employees of one of the most important aspects of using the chatbot: Do not use any personally identifiable information (PII) when using the assistant.
“We apologize for the supervision in the training video,” SSA wrote in a chatbot about the chatbot. The Wired reviewed fact sheet adds that employees using the chatbot should “avoid uploading the PII to the chatbot.”
An SSA employee knew the application’s development project told WIREID that the work of a chatbot about a year ago began about a year ago before Musk or Doge arrived at the agency. The app has been undergoing limited testing since February before rolling out it to all SSA workers last week.
The agency announced its availability to all employees in an email, and was reviewed by Wired, which wrote that the chatbot “is designed to help employees complete daily tasks and increase productivity.”
Several SSA employees, including front desk staff, told Wired that they completely ignored emails about the chatbots because they were too busy with actual work, making up for the reduction in staff at the SSA office. Others said they had briefly tested the chatbot, but were immediately not impressed.
“Honestly, no one is really talking about it,” a source told Wired. “I’m not sure most of my colleagues have even watched training videos. I played a little with the chatbot and the few answers I received from it were very vague and/or inaccurate.”
Another source said their colleagues were laughing at the training video.
“You’ll hear my colleagues making fun of the graphics. I know no one is there [using it]. “It’s so clumsy and terrible,” the source said, adding that the chatbots also provided them with inaccurate information.
