Elon Musk wants to monitor IRS data by creating a mega API, according to a report by Wired. To create the API, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will organize a hackathon in Washington DC next week.
DOGE will work in a partnership with IRS leaders to organize the hackathon, where engineers will have two main tasks: dismantle the current IRS systems and build a new mega API that will control and oversee the IRS data. This means every taxpayer’s name, social security number, tax return, and other sensitive data will be accessed and manipulated by this mega API.
Elon Musk wants to organize a hackathon
The hackathon will be organized by two of the most skilled DOGE workers with the IRS, Sam Corcos and Gavin Kliger. Corcos is a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Levels, a healthcare and tech company. He is also an adviser to Scott Bessent and “has been embedded at the Treasury Department,” according to a federal employee. According to Rolling Stone, Corcos has multiple ties to Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX.
Kliger, on the other hand, has no experience working for the government. Before he started working at DOGE, he attended UC Berkeley until 2022. From there, he moved to the AI company Databricks. According to the New York Times, Kliger confronted security officials from USAID, accessed sensitive Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data, and joined in taking down parts of the CFPB website.
According to Corcos, DOGE has plans to build one new API that will rule them all. This API will make it easy for cloud platforms to access IRS data. API, also known as application programming interfaces (APIs), allows applications to talk to each other and exchange data. In this case, an API will help to move the IRS data to the cloud and this cloud platform will be a central point for reading all IRS systems. This means that anyone with access can view and use IRS data.
According to Wired, some sources mentioned that DOGE representatives mentioned that software company Palantir could be a potential partner that will assist in handling IRS data. At the moment, the IRS operates various systems hosted in on-site data centers and on the cloud, and these systems are separate and designed to function independently. Such systems have permission-based access and workers will only see data essential to their role.
In a recent interview with FOX News, Corcos said, “The IRS has some pretty legacy infrastructure. It’s very similar to what banks have been using. It’s old mainframes running COBOL and Assembly and the challenge has been, how do we migrate that to a modern system?” He also stated that he was enlisted to oversee the IRS modernization program, which is 30 years behind schedule and over budget by $15 billion.