DOGE canceled a grant to NC Central. It used ChatGPT to make the decision
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- DOGE staff used ChatGPT to flag some NEH grants as DEI‑related, leading to cuts.
- ChatGPT input helped terminate a $98,420 NC Central grant in April 2025.
- Litigants say DOGE’s ChatGPT use led to discriminatory funding decisions.
The federal government used ChatGPT to identify whether dollars flowing to NC Central, Durham’s public historically Black university, were being used to fund programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Because of the chatbot’s answers, NC Central had a grant terminated.
The university, though, had already spent most of the money and won’t have to pay it back.
The revelation comes as part of the discovery process in a lawsuit that attempts to restore the National Endowment for the Humanities. The NEH was gutted last year by the Department of Governmental Efficiency, the initiative created by President Donald Trump, briefly led by billionaire Elon Musk, and known as DOGE.
Four organizations — the American Council of Learned Societies, the Authors’ Guild, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association — are suing the NEH and its chair, arguing that the cuts violated the constitution’s free speech and equal protection guarantees.
Included in the discovery documents was a list of ChatGPT prompts and responses staffers used to identify which programs should be cut.
DOGE staffers asked the chatbot about congressionally appropriated funding related to NC Central three times as part of a list of queries about hundreds of NEH grants. Each query began, “Does the following relate at all to DEI? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with ‘Yes.’ or ‘No.’ followed by a brief explanation.“
One of their queries was about a project that explored NC Central’s institutional history through its digital archives. Did that relate at all to DEI? ChatGPT’s answer: Yes. Here’s the full exchange:
- Program description given to ChatGPT: “Faculty and staff from Humanities disciplines within the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities at North Carolina Central University will form a cohort to participate in a two-year project (2022-2024) that uses the NCCU materials at Digital NC (especially the newspapers and yearbooks) and the materials in the NCCU Archives to develop teaching materials to be implemented in their courses. In the first year, we will coordinate with the Digital Humanities Research Institute at CUNY for workshop materials and instructors who would be willing to run a week of workshops. After the workshop, faculty members will be expected to create and implement course modules using this digital archival material. In the second year, faculty members will participate in a symposium discussing their results and will engage with other faculty members in their disciplines as well as the greater university community and the citizens of Durham, NC.”
- ChatGPT response: Yes. This initiative focuses on utilizing digital archival material to develop teaching materials and engage with the university community and citizens, promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The grant described in the prompt was terminated in April 2025, NC Central spokesperson Quiana Shepard told The N&O.
The amount awarded, which was to be spent over the course of four years, totalled $89,110. By the time the grant was terminated, however, NC Central had only $5,977 left in the award, which the school was unable to spend, Shepard said.
The use of ChatGPT in decision-making
The various organizations argue in their lawsuit that the use of ChatGPT in the decision-making around the termination of congressionally appropriated funds was discriminatory and wrong.
“Working outside NEH’s established processes, the two DOGE members used ChatGPT to identify grants associated with a disfavored and supposedly dangerous viewpoint: promoting ‘DEI.’ In so doing, they selected some grants for termination solely because they involved a specific race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation,” the motion reads.
“[Senior DOGE staffer Justin] Fox never instructed ChatGPT on what definition of ‘DEI’ to apply. Nor did he verify what the model understood the term to mean. And Fox did not do anything to ensure that ChatGPT would not discriminate on the basis of the grant writer’s or grant subject’s participation in a constitutionally protected class.”
The staffers also asked ChatGPT about a grant for NC Central to offset costs associated with faculty on temporary leave and another to fund an NC Central professor’s book about 19th-century female musicians in the South. ChatGPT didn’t think either of these related to DEI, however.
The list of 1,162 NEH grant descriptions submitted to ChatGPT for review had other North Carolina connections as well.
DOGE staffers asked the chatbot about PBS’ documentary on the 1898 coup and massacre in Wilmington, during which white supremacists overthrew the government and killed many Black residents. ChatGPT told staffers that yes, the documentary relates to DEI.
Still, the PBS documentary about the insurrection aired in November 2024.
ChatGPT also said that a grant to replace the High Point Museum’s aging HVAC system related to DEI. Why? Because “HVAC systems enhances preservation conditions for collections, aligning with the goal of providing greater access to diverse audiences.”
That grant was canceled, WFMY News 2 reported.
