US Department of Transportation to use Google Gemini to draft federal rules

The U.S. Department of Transportation plans to use Google Gemini to draft federal transportation regulations. ProPublica reports this based on agency records, emails, and interviews with six staffers.[1]

DOT general counsel Gregory Zerzan said Gemini can produce Notice of Proposed Rulemaking drafts in about 20 minutes. Staff provide keywords to the model. He said the model handles 80–90% of the work. Staff proofread the output.[1][2]

The program aims to compress full rulemaking timelines to roughly 30 days. This comes amid staff reductions of nearly 4,000 employees, including more than 100 attorneys. The agency described a 'flood the zone' strategy to produce 'good enough' rules.[1][3] DOT has already used AI to draft one unpublished Federal Aviation Administration rule.[1]

Experts warn of risks. LLMs can hallucinate and lack statutory expertise. They could produce flawed safety rules for aviation, pipelines, and hazardous materials. That could lead to lawsuits, injuries, or deaths.[1][4]

DOT, Google, and White House spokespeople did not comment.

Why It Matters

• Require AI verification and human-in-the-loop review to detect hallucinations and ensure legal and safety compliance in faster-issued rules.
• Adopt ML governance controls—model logging, versioning, input provenance, and audit trails—to support audits and legal defense of AI-generated policy.
• IT and legal teams should monitor DOT's rollout, update risk assessments, and prepare incident response plans for potential safety or litigation issues.