In April 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used ChatGPT to make the decision to cancel a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant awarded to North Carolina Central University, according to a report from The News & Observer.
The American Council of Learned Societies, the Authors’ Guild, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association have jointly filed a lawsuit against NEH and its chair, stating DOGE’s series of grant cuts last year violated the First Amendment, and that DOGE did not have legal authority to make those cancellations. Included in that lawsuit is a 248-page document listing over 1,100 prompts input into ChatGPT by DOGE, as well as the chatbot’s responses.
One of those prompts sought to determine if a grant project regarding the institutional history of North Carolina Central University was related to diversity, equity, and inclusion:
- DOGE’s prompt: “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. Do not use ‘this initiative’ or ‘this description’ in your response. 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’s 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.”
Quiana Shepard, a spokesperson for North Carolina Central University, told The News & Observer that this project, totaling $89,110, was canceled in April 2025. At the time of termination, only $5,977 was left; the HBCU was unable to use those remaining funds.
