Musk warns again on emails, will use AI to assess federal workers

• Elon Musk renewed his warning to fire workers who don’t respond to an email with a recap of achievements. The demand sparked confusion across the federal government.
• The U.S. Office of Personnel Management told agencies that responses to the recap email were not mandatory.
• DOGE plans to use artificial intelligence to analyze the email responses to determine who is “essential.”

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Elon Musk is doubling down on a warning he sent to federal employees, which was to respond to an email with a recap of accomplishments from the last week, or be fired. Hours after the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) told agencies that responses to the recap email were optional, Musk again threatened workers Monday evening, Feb. 24 in a post on X.

“Subject to the discretion of the president, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”

Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance.

Failure to respond a second time will result in termination. https://t.co/04xzgScXfj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 25, 2025

What did President Trump say about the email demand?

Musk’s statement came as President Donald Trump defended the mandate.

“There was a lot of genius in sending it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday. “We’re trying to find out if people are working, and so we’re sending a letter to people, ‘Please tell us what you did last week.’ If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working.”

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Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency, originally gave federal employees until the end of Monday to send their five bullet points outlining their achievements.

However, that request was met with confusion as it contradicted the guidance from OPM. The federal agency said response to the initial email was not mandatory. It also said that failure to do so would not be considered a resignation.

How did leaders of government agencies respond?

Leaders of various agencies told their employees they didn’t have to comply with the request, while some told their staff they should, creating a rift among President Trump’s top allies.

In a message to staff on Saturday, Feb. 22, FBI Director Kash Patel said, “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”

The Department of Defense said it was responsible for reviewing employee performance and it would coordinate responses to the OPM email, asking workers to pause a response.

There was no word on how many federal workers complied with the original email. 

How does DOGE plan to use AI to evaluate email responses?

DOGE plans to use artificial intelligence to analyze the email responses of those who do respond, to consider whether their work is “essential,” according to NBC News. 

The information will go into a large language model (LLM), which looks at huge amounts of text data to understand, generate and process human language.

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This initiative by Musk is part of his broader effort to reduce federal spending and remove inactive staff.

Dozens of lawsuits against Musk’s demands have gotten mixed results, with some requests for immediate halts to his executive orders being denied by judges.