The US is rapidly embracing artificial intelligence into the government’s everyday function. From military planning and tax audits to airport security and veterans’ mental health, AI is increasingly becoming a focal tool in the way the country administers its infrastructure, public services, and national defense.
This shift is not a pilot program. It’s a routine embedding of AI across federal agencies, redefining the work of departments. Federal officials claim that the goal is to be more efficient, make better decisions, and save dollars. But the rollout is already provoking serious transparency, bias, and civil rights issues.
AI is now directing several core activities. The IRS is being trained to identify unusual activity on tax returns, potentially speeding up audits and finding more fraud. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense is employing AI for logistics planning, simulation, and decision support on military action.
In other places, airport authorities are using facial recognition to recognize travelers, and the Department of Veterans Affairs is testing AI to detect mental health hazards in returnees from military duty. Even the US Patent Office is considering using AI to accelerate its review process.
Adherents declare it’s a step in the right direction. They argue that AI eliminates human error, speeds up tempo, and enables employees to become available for higher-level work. Saving a few seconds on a case or two, in fields like air traffic control or veteran affairs, can translate to scale to life-or-death decisions.
PENTAGON SIGNS AI DEALS WITH OPENAI, GOOGLE, xAI, ANTHROPIC
The military just gave $800M in contracts to 4 AI firms:
▶️ OpenAI
▶️ Google
▶️ Anthropic
▶️ Elon’s xAIAgentic AI is coming to war.
Here’s what they’re building pic.twitter.com/IdrPTboKjN
— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) July 15, 2025
Efficiency Isn’t the Only Concern
While benefits are being hailed, though, experts are sounding alarms regarding threats.
Privacy groups and human rights organizations warn that unless robust protections are written into government AI, it can be a strong surveillance tool, profiling device, or discriminator. In uses like the IRS or law enforcement, where its choices have legal consequences, even a very slight prejudice in an algorithm can harm citizens deeply.
Technology ethics instructor Ellen Chang of Boston simply put it: “It’s not about saving time. It’s about who gets flagged, who gets ignored, and who gets wrongly punished.“
There is also concern over data gathering. Vast collections of data underlie much of the AI employed in government, and it is not always well understood how that data is gathered and retained. Without good regulations, critics argue, private information can be mishandled, worst, abused.
A National AI Policy Is on the Horizon
In recognizing stakes, the White House will issue a full federal AI strategy. The new policy will most likely include requirements for fairness testing, transparency, human review, and clear accountability provisions.
The objective is to have ethical and operational guidelines for how AI is utilized throughout public agencies. That’s from determining how a decision was reached to the point of having a human in the loop where things go awry.
This would put the US in league with other countries, the UK and EU members among them, that are crafting their own AI standards centered on safety, fairness, and control.
A Closer Look at Where AI Is Active
The most technologically advanced application of artificial intelligence is in the Defense Department. Artificial intelligence is used to accelerate and improve accuracy, from simulated battles to supply on the battlefield. Although the military guarantees that human involvement is always present in kill-or-be-killed decisions, rising use of autonomous systems is causing alarm.
The IRS, meanwhile, relies on machine learning to identify patterns the human auditors would otherwise miss. Officials hope it will level enforcement, but skeptics fear that it will disproportionately burden specific income groups or neighborhoods unless carefully calibrated.
In transportation and security, AI is streamlining airport operations and enhancing surveillance. Real-time facial recognition and monitoring of behavioral patterns are already used in most big airports.
And in the Department of Veterans Affairs, AI is being piloted as a tool to diagnose early warning signs of PTSD or depression, identify at-risk patients for further review before they hit crisis.
The Ethics of Public Automation
AI in government is not just a technical matter, it’s deeply human. It’s a question of how much we entrust to machines and what happens when those machines fail.
3/ The DoD says it’s building “agentic AI workflows across mission areas.”
That means:
⚠️ AI doing battlefield analysis
⚠️ AI handling weapons coordination
⚠️ AI making recommendations or even decisionsThis is military AGI prep—under the radar. pic.twitter.com/GRz9dGJlzs
— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) July 15, 2025
Critics argue that without outside review, there is no way of knowing whether AI systems are accurate or fair. Many of these applications are out of sight, and they don’t have to reveal how they do their job and what they conclude.
Policy experts and ethicists are calling for third-party scrutiny, public disclosure, and more stringent controls over which information can be utilized. They also call for open processes for allowing individuals to object to decisions made by AI.
“The question isn’t whether or not AI is beneficial,” said Jamal Rodríguez, a policy advisor on digital governance. “It’s whether it can be trusted in the public space, and whether the people who are going to be impacted have any way of pushing back.”
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What This Means for Regular People
You don’t necessarily need to be a technology buff to feel the effects of this shift. Whether it’s passing through airport security, paying taxes, claiming government benefits, or serving in the military, there’s increasingly likely an algorithm involved in your interaction.
As more and more agencies start using these technologies, the decisions they make, whom to screen, whom to audit, whom to help, are increasingly going to be determined by code, rather than by human discretion.
This is why the upcoming White House AI plan is more than the unveiling of a policy. It’s a test of character for how the US weighs innovation against fairness, control against transparency, and progress against protection.
Google should win, as they have quantum on their side.
If regular physics created the doomsday device…then quantum physics should create the doomssecond device…
— Prince Miruzu (@aaronmiruzu) July 16, 2025
In Summary
The U.S. government is applying AI in its core services such as defence, tax collection, transport, and veteran health.
Official promises are all about improved efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings, but warnings have been raised by critics about uncontrolled bias, privacy invasions, and transparency deficits.
A national AI policy will establish guidelines for fair use, regulation, and public transparency.
The decisions being made today will determine the manner in which the technology is made to serve the public, and the ways in which the people can render the systems accountable.
And with the line between human and machine decision-making growing thinner, the necessity for sagacious, moral regulation has never been more pressing.
