Schweikert Suggests Using AI to Audit Pentagon

Despite fears about its capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI) has shown some promise. In a recent speech on the House floor, Representative David Schweikert (R-AZ) suggested that the Pentagon and other government bodies could be audited with AI, saying, "Those are ways to use technology to make this government smaller."

Rep. Schweikert underscored the urgency of the situation, highlighting that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has not received a clean financial audit from the Pentagon in six years. As Stars and Stripes clarified, this indicates a need for more economic data from the Pentagon, hindering auditors from effectively evaluating their expenditures.

"This was not a surprise," noted Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord.

However, Rep. Schweikert said, "Why do we tolerate that? Why isn't this Body losing its mind over something like that? Just from a national security standpoint, how do you know if maybe they need more, maybe they need less, maybe we have too much of something? We don't know!"

Thankfully, the Arizona Congressman pointed out that artificial intelligence could greatly assist in audits, for as CPA Practice Advisor suggested, "This powerful tool can drill down into millions of lines of data, flagging potential anomalies in minutes for auditors to examine instead of relying on the manual selection and review of data samples ― expending significantly more time looking for the proverbial "needle in a haystack."

Schweikert further said AI could provide much-needed assistance in tracking Medicare, Medicaid, and durable equipment fraud, which he said "are ways to use technology to make this government smaller."

Despite the promise of technology such as AI and the morality of curing diseases, "[Congress] will knife each other when we're just trying to add technology to telehealth because it will force someone out there to change their business model and maybe also find a better, faster, cheaper way to do it because they have to compete against technology," Schweikert said disapprovingly.

But rather than fight change, Schweikert said Congress should embrace it, particularly as technology could help stabilize the national debt, even if it requires the disruption of established bureaucracies and business models, "and that's the way America is supposed to work."

The Arizona Congressman has been heavily critical of government spending under the Biden Administration, predicting in March that "by the end of this decade, this country will have a VAT tax, a value-added tax, just like the rest of the industrialized world, just like Europe, just like everyone else. And at that moment, the working middle class, that hardworking middle class, will be poorer."