HHS Uses AI Tools From Palantir to Target ‘DEI’ and ‘Gender Ideology’ in Grants
Since last March, The Department of Health and Human Services has been using AI tools from Palantir to evaluate and evaluate grants, grant applications, and job descriptions in violation of President Donald Trump’s directives targeting “gender bias” and anything related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), according to a recently published list of all use cases HHS had for AI2025 in AI.
Neither Palantir nor HHS has publicly announced that the company’s software was used for these purposes. In the first year of Trump’s second term, Palantir received more than $35 million in payments and obligations from HHS alone. None of the definitions of this transaction mention this activity targeting DEI or “gender perspectives.”
The audit was taking place within HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which funds family and child welfare and oversees adoption and adoption programs. Palantir is the only contractor tasked with creating a list of “position descriptions that may need to be amended to conform to the latest directives.”
In addition to Palantir, the Credal AI startup—founded by two Palantir students—helped ACF research “existing grants and new grant applications.” The “AI-based” grant review process, the inventory says, “reviews application submission files and generates initial flags and priorities for discussion.” All relevant information is then taken to the ACF Program Office for final review.
ACF staff ultimately review any job descriptions, grants, and grant applications flagged by AI during a “final review,” according to the list. It also says that these AI use cases are currently “distributed” within ACF, meaning they are being used on an ongoing basis within the agency.
Last year, ACF paid Credal AI nearly $750,000 to provide the company with a “Tech Enterprise Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Platform,” but the payment descriptions in the Federal Register do not mention DEI or “gender perception.”
HHS, ACF, Palantir, and Credal AI did not return WIRED’s requests for comment.
The executive orders—Executive Order 14151, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” and Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”—were both issued on Trump’s first day in office last year.
The first of these orders calls for the elimination of any policies, programs, contracts, grants that address or affect DEIA, DEI, “equity,” or “environmental justice,” and charges the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the attorney general with leading these efforts.
The second directive requires all “interpretation and application” of government laws and policies to define “sex” as an “immutable biological classification” and to define gender only as “male” and “female.” It considers “gender stereotypes” and “gender identity” to be “false” and “disconnected from biological reality.” It also says that no government funds can be used “to promote gender stereotypes.”
“Each agency will review grant criteria and recipient preferences and ensure that grant funds do not promote gender stereotypes,” it reads.
The effects of Executive Order 14151, which targeted DEI, and Executive Order 14168, which targeted “gender stereotypes,” have been deeply felt across the country over the past year.
Early last year, the National Science Foundation began flagging any research that contained words associated with DEI—including common words, such as “female,” “inclusion,” “systemic,” or “underrepresented”—and subjecting it to formal review. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began retracting or suspending research that mentioned terms such as “LGBT,” “transsexual,” or “nonbinary,” and stopped processing any data related to transgender people. Last July, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration removed the LGBTQ youth service line provided by the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
