The Competition for AI IPOs Intensifies, DOGE Whistleblower Files Suit Against Elon Musk, and Instagram Faces a Security Breach

Zoë Schiffer: Deviants and freaks, that’s the new title of our podcast. Revisiting the concept of red teaming, this is work usually handled by trust and safety teams. Unfortunately, those teams—

Leah Feiger: Aren’t around anymore.

Zoë Schiffer: Their numbers have diminished compared to the past, largely due to a reduction in workload. It’ll be interesting to observe how this unfolds. Within Meta, we’ve recently spoken with colleagues who reacted to the news with resignation. The company has just made significant layoffs, which we’ve covered extensively. I checked in with some people to ask, “How’s everything going now?” The hack provided a good reason for conversations, and the feedback was, “As expected, we’re now juggling two roles instead of one.” You can imagine the implications of that.

Brian Barrett: We were discussing AI regulation earlier, focusing heavily on national security and high-level concerns, yet there’s less emphasis on consumer-facing products. For instance, having a dedicated bureau to safeguard consumer finances would be particularly beneficial right now. We used to have one of those. Technically it still exists, but not really. This trend of wider deregulation coincides with a time when previously available resources are lacking, and these new tools are highly unpredictable. We can anticipate more issues arising.

Leah Feiger: Can I shift gears to a topic unrelated to AI, everyone?

Brian Barrett: Please do.

Zoë Schiffer: Wow. I didn’t know such a topic existed, but yes, go ahead.

Brian Barrett: I believe we can find a way to connect it again.

Zoë Schiffer: Certainly, we can.

Leah Feiger: No, absolutely not. Anyway, this story is one we’ve been contemplating for quite some time—it concerns a DOGE whistleblower who has just initiated a lawsuit against Elon Musk. This saga really began last year. On April 14, 2025, Dan Berulis, an IT staff member at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), lodged a whistleblower complaint with serious allegations. He claimed that DOGE had compromised the agency’s data, apparently exfiltrating it from the NLRB.

Archival audio: A whistleblower has stepped forward with allegations that DOGE not only accessed data from his agency but also removed a considerable amount of sensitive information. As indicated in a disclosure provided to Congress, “Approximately 10 gigabytes of data, akin to a complete stack of encyclopedias if printed as hard copy documents.”

Leah Feiger: This was a significant claim, especially given that DOGE teams were terminating federal employees and accessing sensitive data nationwide during that time last April. Berulis went public with an NPR article, putting his name behind it, stating that a threatening note was found taped to his door, which heightened his fear about coming forward. Fast-forward to now, Berulis has filed a defamation suit in a DC court against Elon Musk. He alleges that Musk made him a target for further violence by incorrectly asserting that Berulis’ whistleblower claim regarding DOGE was fake. This is a serious claim for numerous reasons, harkening back to Musk resharing an X post from a right-wing influencer last year, stating that DOGE had been cleared, essentially dismissing the whistleblower’s testimony as false. After that incident—