Pentagon Blames AI for Controversial Removal of Diversity-Related Content from Military Websites

Pentagon Says It's Using AI to Delete Pages About History That's Too Woke

In response to the massive blowback it received for taking down a webpage about famed baseball player Jackie Robinson, Pentagon officials admitted that they're using AI to carry out their purge of all "DEI" content in the military. On Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell posted a video on X to provide "clarity" about why Robinson, a legendary figure who was the first to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, and an Army veteran who served during World War II, came into the crosshairs of the Trump administration's initiative to remove any references deemed too focused on diversity from official military websites and communications. Rather than fessing up to the racist snafu, Parnell suggested that artificial intelligence was at fault. "Because of the realities of AI tools and other software, some important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed," Parnell said in the video. "We want to be very, very clear, history is not DEI." "When content is either mistakenly removed or if it's maliciously removed," Parnell emphasized strikingly, "we continue to work quickly to restore it." The controversy is the latest to stem from president Donald Trump's executive order directing the Department of Defense to eliminate military DEI initiatives and to excise any content that highlights race and gender. The saga began Wednesday when observers realized that a brief bio about Robinson's life suddenly returned a "Page Not Found" error with a URL containing the word "DEI." That sparked an explosion of outrage on social media so vociferous that not even the most hardline anti-woke crusaders in the administration could ignore it. Stepping up to the task, DoD public affairs official John Ullyot made a statement that didn't address whether the takedown of Robinson's biography was a mistake, and instead ranted about "Woke cultural Marxism." That only fanned the flames, and the backlash mounted. On Thursday, Ullyot was removed from his role, the Washington Post reported. The Robinson article has now been restored. The controversy is also emblematic of the Trump administration's eager adoption of AI to carry out its blitzkrieg of the federal government. Lackeys at Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency have fed sensitive government employee and financial data into an AI model, while using a another AI tool to assess the emails Musk demanded from all federal employees to justify keeping their jobs. DOGE is also training a custom AI chatbot to sift through government contracts and other expenditures. Meanwhile, the US Army is using an AI model called "CamoGPT" to remove DEI references in training materials. The use of the technology is nefarious in these contexts for a number of reasons, not least of all because it can be used to take the blame off Trump's anti-woke enforcers when they get caught doing something beyond the pale even by their standards. Since the tech works sweepingly and automatically, vast swathes of content can be wiped out on a moment's notice, and it's only in the exceptional cases like this one that there's enough attention to undo the damage.

Trump Admin Blames Removal of Black and Latino Veteran Content on AI

Following the removal of an article honoring Jackie Robinson's military service in World War II, Black Medal of Honor recipient Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers, and numerous other pages highlighting contributions by women and minority groups, a spokesperson for the Pentagon blamed the use of artificial intelligence for the accidental takedowns. "We enforced an aggressive timeline for our DOD services and agencies to comb through a vast array of content, while ensuring that our force remains ready and lethal," said Sean Parnell, U.S. Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, when discussing President Donald Trump's administration's efforts to eliminate all content it considers DEI from federal agencies. Parnell admitted that, "Every now and then, because of the realities of AI tools and other software, some important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed." "We want to be very, very clear, history is not DEI when content is either mistakenly removed or if it's maliciously removed, we continue to work quickly to restore it," he added, while also portraying former President Joe Biden's administrations efforts to address minority underrepresentation as a "zealous and destructive commitment to DEI" that "divided our nation." Since his return to the White House, Trump has issued multiple executive orders aimed at purging the government of anything related to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, while his administration has steadfastly worked to wipe government websites and social media accounts of DEI references. The sudden removal of pages featuring venerated veterans such as Robinson and Rogers prompted backlash from those calling the purge a disrespectful erasure of history. "This pattern of racial cleansing from the Department of Defense's historical record is not just disturbing -- it is dangerous," wrote author Michael Embrich in a commentary for Rolling Stone. "It will lead to morale and recruitment problems, compounding the broader crisis of an all-out demagogic assault on the contributions of historic military figures." While the pages were later restored, details about the department's removal process were not given at the time. Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon to purge its digital footprint of all content that promotes diversity, including months that celebrate cultural awareness. Hegseth also fired several top military leaders he deemed overly focused on diversity and equity in the ranks.