Elon Musk has been known for raising the eyebrows of ordinary people with new technical ideas. As usual, he came up with a new one, and this time, it sparked some primary concern as he plans to execute a reform in social security. The Tesla billionaire has been tackling a massive computer system and is powering the SSA – Social Security Administration.
The idea, which seems unbelievable, is that over 60 million lines of code are scripted in the COBOL programming language and have ages of more than a decade. The plan is to rewrite them in a “more modern” language. As like every time, Elon Musk plans to execute the work within months
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Now, coming to the major concerns, over 65 million Americans receive payments via this system every month. Experts believe that this type of mammoth change can undoubtedly lead to some catastrophic failures during the whole process.
The Social Security Administration is also burdened in several ways, which include stricter ID requirements, staff cuts, reduced field offices, etc., and adding one more technological change, which is no less than playing a gamble of defusing a bomb.
Experts pointed out the large-scale migrations and said, “It’s a really delicate undertaking,” this generally takes nearly a decade. This work needs thousands of developers, and bringing it within a few months is certainly a risk the Space X founder will take.
The COBOL programming language has been there for decades because it is reliable. It has powered the financial as well as the government systems for years without any significant failures. Hence, it has been the backbone of the SSA for a reason.
However, things seem to be in a rush from Elon Musk’s team, as a name critic from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) calls this “ironically misleading.” Concerns are arising about the changes in the codes, and people are also worrying about whether the system will be properly tested or not because this work needs years and not months, as mentioned
Though AI has become a reliable way to help generate codes again, experts warn that AI is undoubtedly not the substitute for human oversight, especially not in cases where thousands of lives are at stake.
AI-generated code still needs manual verification. Errors are inevitable, and if they aren’t caught, payments could be delayed or lost,” warned Wired in a recent report.
To say that the potential fallout will harm people is an understatement. If any disaster takes place, millions of seniors and vulnerable individuals from the United States will suffer, as missed Social Security check reflects on their struggle to pay rent, buy groceries, or even take medications, eventually impacting their overall lives. Fixing problems after they occur is certainly more complex than stopping them early.
