Since last March, the Department of Health and Human Services uses AI tools from Palantir to screen and verify grants, grant applications, and job descriptions for non-compliance with President Donald Trump’s directives decrees targeting “gender ideology” and anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), according to a recently published inventory of all HHS use cases for AI in 2025.
Neither Palantir nor HHS has publicly announced that the company’s software is being used for these purposes. During the first year of Trump’s second term, Palantir won more than $35 million in payments and obligations from HHS alone. None of the descriptions of these transactions mention this work targeting DEI or “gender ideology.”
The audits took place within HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which funds family and child welfare and oversees the foster care and adoption systems. Palantir is the only contractor responsible for compiling a list of “job descriptions that may need to be adjusted to align with recent executive orders.”
In addition to Palantir, the startup Credal AI, founded by two Palantir alumni– helped ACF audit “existing grants and new grant requests”. According to the inventory, the “AI-powered” grant review process “reviews application submission materials and generates initial metrics and priorities for discussion.” All relevant information is then forwarded to the ACF program office for final review.
ACF staff ultimately reviews all position descriptions, grants and grant applications reported by AI during a “final review” stage, according to the inventory. It also states that these particular AI use cases are currently “deployed” within ACF, meaning they are actively used within the agency.
Last year, ACF paid Credal AI about $750,000 from ACF to provide the company’s “technology enterprise generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) platform,” but payment descriptions in the Federal Register do not mention DEI or “gender ideology.”
HHS, ACF, Palantir and Credal AI did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.
The decrees…Executive Order 14151“End radical and unnecessary DEI government programs and preferences” and Executive Order 14168“Defending Women from Ideological Gender Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth in the Federal Government” – were both released on Trump’s first day in office last year.
The first of these orders requires an end to any policy, program, contract, grant that mentions or concerns DEIA, DEI, “equity,” or “environmental justice,” and directs the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Attorney General to lead these efforts.
The Second Order requires that all “interpretation and enforcement” of federal laws and policies define “sex” as an “immutable biological classification,” define genders only as “male” and “female,” and view “gender ideology” and “gender identity” as “false” and “disconnected from biological reality.” It also states that no federal funding can be used “to promote gender ideology.”
“Each agency must evaluate grant conditions and recipient preferences and ensure that grant funds do not promote gender ideology,” it reads.
The consequences of Executive Order 14151, targeting DEI, and Executive Order 14168, targeting “gender ideology,” have been deeply felt across the country over the past year.
Early last year, the National Science Foundation began report any search that contained terms associated with DEI – including relatively broad terms, such as “woman”, “inclusion”, “systemic” or “underrepresented” – and submit it for formal review. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has started retract or pause searches mentioning terms such as “LGBT”, “transsexual” or “non-binary”, and treatment stopped any data relating to transgender people. Last July, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration deleted a service line for LGBTQ youth offered by 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
