WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters) – The Pentagon on Friday named Gavin Kliger, a computer scientist who helped billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to overhaul the government last year and has boosted white supremacists and misogynists online, as chief data officer.

Reuters reported last year that Kliger had reposted content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate and made some controversial comments.

Kliger said in an email that he was honored to take on the new role and disputed allegations about his social media posts. “The suggestion that I support ‘bigots,’ ‘extremists,’ or white supremacists is categorically false,” he said.

In a social media post, the Pentagon said Kliger’s new role “places him at the center of the Department’s most ambitious AI efforts,” focusing on “the daily alignment and execution of the Department’s AI projects, working directly with US border AI labs to support the warfighter.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for further comment.

FILE - The Pentagon seen from an airplane window on August 27, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE – The Pentagon seen from an airplane window on August 27, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

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The Pentagon’s use of AI has taken center stage after a heated weeks-long dispute with Anthropic over guardrails on how the military can use its AI tools, leading to last week’s decision by the Trump administration to abandon the company and replace it with OpenAI.

On Thursday, the Pentagon granted Anthropic a formal supply chain risk designation — an extraordinary rebuke by the administration against an American technology company that began working with the Pentagon earlier than its competitors and was more aggressive in courting American national security officials. But the company and the Pentagon have been at odds for months over how the military can use its technology on the battlefield. This conflict erupted into public opinion at the beginning of this year.

Anthropic has refused to back down on bans on its Claude AI powering autonomous weapons and mass surveillance in the United States. The Pentagon has responded, saying it should be able to use this technology as needed, as long as it complies with US law.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Raphael Satter; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Louise Heavens and Tomasz Janoski)