Roberge, Jonathan 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9282-5218; Chartier-Edwards, Nicolas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3775-924X et Galaretta, Victor
(2026).
DOGE Blitzkrieg: on Musk's artificial intelligence statecraft
Science as Culture
.
pp. 1-14.
DOI: 10.1080/09505431.2025.2607357.
Résumé
Oligarchies exist in a multitude of iterations, yet the very notion of a tech oligarchy captures today’s particular zeitgeist; a power dynamic intersecting current capitalism, politics, and (new) technologies. Elon Musk, the richest man alive, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and social network X (once Twitter), embodies such a notion with perfection. His tumultuous relationship with US President Donald Trump, even though he invested roughly 270 million dollars in his campaign, ignited passions left and right. Furthermore, his complicated relationship with artificial intelligence (AI), i.e. his transition from a cautious position to full-fledged adoption, has baffled pundits. Following the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by the US Government in January 2025, which Musk was the unofficial head of, the mediasphere sought to decipher what it was doing across different government agencies, especially in relation to DOGE’s relationship with AI: DOGE Is in Its AI Era (Barrett, Citation2025); Elon Musk Ally Tells Staff ‘AI-First’ Is the Future of Key Government Agency (Kelly, Citation2025b); Musk’s DOGE wants to overhaul the government with AI (Rosenberg, Citation2025), etc. These accounts offer snapshots of rapidly unfolding events. But what can Science and Technology Studies (STS) say that would shed new light on the debates and power shifts symbolized by Musk’s agency? Which broader discourses and narratives translate into practically enacted dispositifs that condition the possibility for tech oligarchy’s crystallization? In turn, how can such issues and questions come to alter what is understood by the very notion of STS? In this article, we want to argue that the tech-oligarchy, of which Musk is a defining member, mobilizes its technical expertise as a form of political legitimacy to steer the administrative state toward automation. This steering is defined by a velocity to the process, framed by notions of efficiency. STS offers a relevant perspective to address this political problem, which is equally symbolic – dealing with conflicting views on the nature of power and the rule of law – and practical, that is, addressing the mundane construction of statecraft and government models. Of interest to us is the performativity of DOGE’s foray into artificial intelligence, its mise en scènce, as it represents the epitome of what constitutes the ‘dataist state’ (Fourcade and Gordon, Citation2020).
| Type de document: | Article |
|---|---|
| Mots-clés libres: | Artificial intelligence; statecraft; DOGE; Elon Musk; technocracy |
| Centre: | Centre Urbanisation Culture Société |
| Date de dépôt: | 13 avr. 2026 18:06 |
| Dernière modification: | 13 avr. 2026 18:06 |
| URI: | https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/17063 |
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