Depositions reveal DOGE used ChatGPT to cut 97% of NEH humanities grants

Discovery documents released March 7, 2026, in a lawsuit brought by the American Historical Association, Modern Language Association, and American Council of Learned Societies revealed that DOGE staffers fed NEH grant descriptions into ChatGPT to flag awards as DEI, then used those AI-generated labels to cancel $100 million in humanities grants affecting schools, libraries, and community organizations. DOGE team members made the final funding decisions despite having no statutory authority over NEH appropriations. Depositions showed staffers could not define DEI when questioned under oath.