Elon Musk‘s DOGE has terminated a multi-million dollar virtual reality project that taught soldiers how to have ‘difficult conversations,’ DailyMail.com can first report.
The Air Force and Space Force were dolling out millions for a training program not to better enhance soldiers’ fighting capability, but to ‘help grow inclusive-minded leaders.’
It was a priority for military officials under former President Joe Biden to address ‘unconscious bias’ in the military ranks and create a more ‘inclusive’ force, according to a White House memo.
The Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command handed out a staggering $2.3 million contract to create a virtual reality experience where soldiers would deal with an avatar that would help them speak and act in a DEI-friendly way.
‘This program allows the participants to have a conversation that are both realistic and difficult,’ an Air Force soldier wrote alongside a video testimonial. ‘It uses a virtual avatar that are controlled by trained actors.’
It ‘is just another way that the Air and Space Force are innovating and staying one step ahead of a time when we have difficult conversations!’ the soldier continued.
But that project cut directly against Donald Trump‘s executive order to eliminate DEI programs, so Musk’s DOGE canceled the initiative.
‘DOGE has canceled a $2.3mm contract with the Air Force’s University for the ‘profession of arms center of excellence unconscious bias mixed reality service,” a senior White House official revealed to DailyMail.com.
LIVE’s VR experience provides dynamic decision-making moments aimed at growing inclusive leaders, according to the military sites touting it. The pro-DEI program was used during the Air Education and Training Command squadron leadership course Jan. 26, 2023, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, (pictured above)
The LIVE program was cut by DOGE after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to eliminate government DEI programs
‘The Leading Inclusively Virtual Experience, or LIVE, program is a modernized learning tool that consists of a mixed virtual reality experience that uses a combination of interactive scenarios with authentic, real-time dialogue to challenge individuals to engage in difficult diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) conversations,’ a press release on it touted
The cancellation of the $2.3 million contract was exclusively previewed on DailyMail.com’s Magaland podcast.
According to a press release on the program, the ‘Leading Inclusively Virtual Experience’ program used virtual reality ‘to challenge individuals to engage in difficult diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) conversations.’
As soldiers interacted with this DEI avatar a room full of their colleagues would watch as the participant navigated ‘difficult conversations.’
The avatar was controlled by an actor who would challenge the participant with tough topics, presumably relating to race, gender, age and sexual orientation.
Literature produced by the Air Force to tout the program noted how soldiers who participated in the LIVE program were venturing into a ‘brave space.’
‘When you participate in a L.I.V.E. session, you immerse yourself in a safe, but brave space to practice addressing exclusion using realistic scenarios based on Airmen and Guardian experiences,’ a brochure on the initiative states.
‘When entering a brave space Airmen and Guardians accept a level of discomfort when discussing personal perspectives and experiences, but know they are safe to share because the respect and dignity given by their fellow Airmen and Guardians,’ the pamphlet added.
If selected, soldiers would attend a three-day course funded by the Secretary of the Air Force’s Diversity and Inclusion office at Air University’s Eaker Center at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.
The program grew year-over-year to include more participants.
In 2022 there were three LIVE courses that instructed 52 participants in the Air Force.
The next year in 2023 the program held eight courses that trained 160 participants.
Elon Musk has been tasked by Trump to slash government waste. A senior White House official revealed that Musk’s DOGE recently canceled the LIVE program’s contract
Pictures circulated by the military show that the avatars could be different races
Participants who took the program said it helped them
A Pentagon spokesman suggested DailyMail.com reach out to the Air Force and Space Force for comment.
However, the Air and Space Force did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
The LIVE program’s cancellation comes weeks after Trump ordered all federal employees in DEI roles get placed on paid leave.
Trump’s executive order, titled ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions’, reversed a DEI executive order enacted by President Biden on his first day in office four years ago.
‘President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that America’s strength is found in its diversity,’ a 2021 release from the White House said.
‘America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive,’ it continued.
The Leading Inclusively Virtual Experience program logo
