The U.S. government is about to unleash an artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to slash federal regulations in half by early 2026.
The DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool, also known as “SweetREX Deregulation AI,” is the brainchild of Christopher Sweet, a former University of Chicago student and affiliate of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who devised the technology to quickly identify and speed up the removal of “non-statutory regulations across federal agencies.”
The tool, which is programmed to scan about 200,000 federal rules and flag those that are either outdated or not legally required, ultimately could eliminate about 100,000 rules through automation with minimal human input, according to a PowerPoint presentation last month obtained by the Washington Post.
SweetREX typically uses Google AI models and is primed to review rules within the EPA and State Department, according to the Post story. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, AI has already reviewed more than 1,000 regulatory sections in less than two weeks.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields told the paper that “all options are being explored” to meet the president’s aggressive deregulation goals, though the effort is in its early stages. (The administration divides federal regulations into three buckets, per the PowerPoint presentation: Half are not required by law, 38% are statutorily mandated and 12% are “Not Required but Agency Needs.”)
A planned rollback of regulations via the AI tool represents one of the boldest attempts yet by the Trump administration and DOGE to radically reduce government spending and compliance. Former DOGE adviser Elon Musk made it a personal jihad during his brief tenure at the agency to eviscerate government spending.
DOGE plans to complete agency-specific deregulation lists by Sept. 1 and complete the tool’s nationwide rollout by Jan. 20, 2026, according to the presentation. The tool could save 93% of the labor typically required to gut federal rules, the presentation said, reducing what would take 3.6 million work hours to just 36.
President Trump’s push to eradicate regulations has been a priority since his return to office in January. In addition to the creation of DOGE, Trump issued an executive order in January mandating the repeal of 10 rules for every new one added. The departments of Labor and Transportation have had dozens of regulatory cuts already.
However, it remains to be seen if such repeals withstand the scrutiny of the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the legal process for rescinding rules.
Law scholars are even more skeptical about the ability of AI to interpret complex legal language, particularly around accuracy and oversight, the Post reported. One HUD employee told the paper that AI misinterpreted statutes and flagged legal language as non-compliant when it was accurate.
