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.

One of the ways Elon Musk said he is trying to make the federal government more efficient is by pushing new technologies, including artificial intelligence, to figure out government spending cuts and how federal workers might be replaced with machines.

Federal courts are considering whether Elon Musk’s status as de facto administrator of DOGE complies with the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.