Lawsuit Reveals DOGE Used ChatGPT to Kill 97% of NEH Grants

Court documents released March 6 in a lawsuit by four leading humanities organizations reveal that Department of Government Efficiency staff used ChatGPT — with a 120-character prompt and no human oversight — to identify and terminate 97 percent of the National Endowment for the Humanities' active grants.

The result: 1,400 grants worth more than $100 million were canceled in 22 days. Sixty-five percent of NEH staff were subsequently laid off.

A 120-Character Prompt That Ended Decades of Research

According to discovery materials filed by the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association, the Modern Language Association, and the Authors Guild, DOGE staff fed grant descriptions into ChatGPT with a single instruction: "Does the following relate at all to DEI? Respond factually in less than 120 characters."

No definition of DEI was provided. No subject-matter experts reviewed the outputs. The AI's binary responses were taken at face value.

Projects flagged and terminated included a documentary about Jewish women's slave labor during the Holocaust, an archival project on Italian American history, digitization of Appalachian photography collections, and multiple efforts to preserve endangered Native American languages. "Two people from DOGE had no background in the humanities whatsoever," said Sarah Weicksel of the American Historical Association. "They were unqualified to make these assessments."

The Legal Challenge

The plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment on March 6, arguing the terminations violated the First Amendment and the equal protection clause by targeting grants based solely on the presence of terms like "BIPOC," "LGBTQ," or "Tribal" in their descriptions. The lawsuit also alleges separation-of-powers violations, arguing that NEH acting chair Michael McDonald improperly ceded the agency's statutory authority to DOGE.

Paula M. Krebs of the MLA called the process a "total disregard for the democratic process and value of the humanities."

What Humanities Researchers Should Do

Researchers whose NEH grants were terminated should monitor the lawsuit closely — a favorable ruling could restore funding. In the meantime, foundation grants from organizations like the Mellon Foundation, the NEH-independent state humanities councils, and university internal funds may offer bridge funding. Granted can help identify active humanities and cultural preservation grants. Continued coverage is available on the Granted blog.