Elon Musk is racing to perfect an AI model, just as teams of his young associates are gaining access to some of the nation’s most sensitive and closely guarded databases through the Department of Government Efficiency. That has sparked worries among Democrats and even some Republicans that Musk could use those records to supercharge his AI.

Elon Musk’s role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, is on the surface a dramatic effort to overhaul the inefficiencies of federal bureaucracy. But beneath the rhetoric of cost-cutting and regulatory streamlining lies a troubling scenario.