How one of Elon Musk's DOGE workers solved a 2,000-year mystery and won $700,000
Luke Farritor, one of the few employees at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, rose to fame in the tech world after solving a 2,000-year-old riddle that has stumped every historian and archaeologist so far - and he did it with the power of artificial intelligence.
'Wonderkids' in the technology world are certainly not a rare occurrence, as often the best and brightest begin honing their skills from an early age, but young 'genius' Luke Farritor separated himself from the rest by achieving something that many had wrestled with for over 2,000 years.
For centuries historians and archaeologists had wrestled with one particular papyrus scroll from the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum, which alongside Pompeii was laid to rubble by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
While many aspects of both towns have been miraculously preserved, including a recently discovered bathhouse, this particular scroll was charred enough to make the writing supposedly unreadable - that is until Farritor came along.
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Using complex AI algorithms, Luke managed to decipher the text upon the blackened scroll, earning himself not only a cash prize of $700,000 but all the fame you'd need to start a burgeoning career in the world of tech, as reported by the Times of India.
Farritor opted to drop out of his course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and instead opt for the Thiel Fellowship which grants young people $100,000 to "build new things instead of sitting in a classroom."
He also linked up with Elon Musk, friend of Peter Thiel, through an internship at SpaceX, and there's a strong likelihood that this led to his current role in the White House at the Department of Government Efficiency.
While it's unclear what exactly this role would comprise, the broader mission of Musk's private advisory board is to cut federal funding by $2,000,000,000,000 before the stated expiry date of 2026.
Even Musk himself has admitted that this will be a challenging task, and they have initially begun by targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion funding across all facets of government, and have announced further plans to dismantle the Department of Education.
Controversy has also surrounded reports that Musk and the DOGE team have gained access to confidential information - including social security numbers - of every individual in the country after infiltrating the Treasury's federal payment system.
As per an announcement from Musk on X, Farritor will also be one of the 'lucky' few to be working 120 hour weeks across all seven days in order to complete the department's necessary tasks, and it has been stated that this is their 'superpower' over typical bureaucratic institutions.