Luke Farritor
{{Short description|American software engineer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Luke Farritor
| image = Luke Farritor (AI Tinkerers SF, October 2023) -2.jpg
| caption = Luke Farritor (2023)
| education = University of Nebraska–Lincoln
| occupation = Software engineer
| father = Shane Farritor
}}
Luke Farritor (born {{birth based on age as of date|23|2025|02|03|noage=1|slash=y}}){{cite news |last1=Swan |first1=Jonathan |last2=Schleifer |first2=Theodore |last3=Haberman |first3=Maggie |last4=Conger |first4=Kate |last5=Mac |first5=Ryan |last6=Ngo |first6=Madeleine |title=Inside Musk's Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/musk-federal-government.html |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=2025-02-03}} is an American software engineer who is currently working at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).{{Cite web |first=Scott |last=Schrage |title=Farritor named co-winner of $700,000 prize for ID'ing scroll passages |url=https://news.unl.edu/article-2 |access-date=February 3, 2025 |date=February 5, 2024 |website=Nebraska Today |publisher=University of Nebraska}}{{Cite web |first=Natalie |last=Alms |date=January 30, 2025 |title=Musk visits and asserts growing influence at GSA |url=https://www.nextgov.com/people/2025/01/musk-visits-and-asserts-growing-influence-gsa/402628/ |access-date=February 3, 2025 |website=Nextgov |language=en}}
Early life and education
Luke is the son of Shane Farritor, a University of Nebraska–Lincoln professor from Ravenna, Nebraska.{{Cite news |last=White |first=Steve |date=5 February 2025 |title=Nebraska tech prodigy reportedly joins Elon Musk's DOGE project |url=https://nebraska.tv/news/local/nebraska-tech-prodigy-reportedly-joins-elon-musks-doge-project |access-date=17 February 2025 |work=Nebraska Television Network}} Luke interned at SpaceX in 2023. That year, he won a $40,000 prize from the Vesuvius Challenge for using artificial intelligence to uncover ten letters from one of the Herculaneum Papyri scrolls.{{Cite web |last=Henshall |first=Will |date=October 21, 2023 |title=Inside the AI-Powered Race to Decode Ancient Roman Scrolls |url=https://time.com/6326563/vesuvius-challenge-herculaneum-papyri-ai/ |access-date=February 3, 2025 |website=Time |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Wade |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Wade |date=October 12, 2023 |title=Scrolls That Survived Vesuvius Divulge Their First Word |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/arts/design/herculaneum-scroll-vesuvius-word-purple.html |access-date=October 13, 2023 |work=The New York Times}} Farritor's AI program segmented images of the carbonized scroll into 100 pixels by 100 pixels to determine the characters written in ink.{{Cite web |date=October 12, 2023 |title=First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by 21yo computer science student |url=https://scrollprize.org/firstletters |access-date=October 13, 2023 |website=scrollprize.org |publisher=Vesuvius Challenge}}{{Cite web |last=Steinberg |first=Julia |title=The 22-Year-Old Who Unlocked the Secrets of Ancient Rome |url=https://www.thefp.com/p/luke-farritor-vesuvius-challenge-scrolls-rome |access-date=February 3, 2025 |date=February 16, 2024 |website=The Free Press |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Sample |first=Ian |date=October 12, 2023 |title=Researchers use AI to read word on ancient scroll burned by Vesuvius |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/12/researchers-use-ai-to-read-word-on-ancient-scroll-burned-by-vesuvius |access-date=October 13, 2023 |work=The Guardian}} In February 2024, Farritor and two other competitors he had teamed up with won the $700,000 grand prize for revealing more than 2,000 additional characters.{{Cite web |date=February 5, 2024 |title=Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll! |url=https://scrollprize.org/grandprize |access-date=12 February 2025 |website=scrollprize.org |publisher=Vesuvius Challenge}}{{Cite web |last=Montgomery |first=David |date=October 15, 2024 |title=How AI is revealing lost secrets of the Roman Empire |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/ai-scrolls-ancient-rome |access-date=February 12, 2025 |website=National Geographic |language=en}}
Farritor studied computer science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, before dropping out to become a Thiel Fellow in 2024.{{Cite news |last=Dunker |first=Chris |date=February 5, 2024 |title=UNL student shares grand prize for translating scroll buried at Pompeii |url=https://journalstar.com/news/local/education/unl-student-shares-grand-prize-for-translating-scroll-buried-at-pompeii/article_6234eda0-c43f-11ee-a266-e74e2e0b8b4e.html |access-date=February 3, 2025 |newspaper=Lincoln Journal Star |language=en}}{{Cite press release |title=Thiel Foundation Announces Next Thiel Fellow Class |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240320742346/en/Thiel-Foundation-Announces-Next-Thiel-Fellow-Class |work=Business Wire |date=March 21, 2024 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241129202023/https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240320742346/en/Thiel-Foundation-Announces-Next-Thiel-Fellow-Class |archive-date=November 29, 2024 |access-date=February 3, 2025 |language=en}}
Career
{{See also|Department of Government Efficiency#DOGE workforce}}
In 2025, Farritor joined Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. He is among a group of 19–24 year olds at the agency.{{Cite news |last=Elliott |first=Vittoria |title=The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk's Government Takeover |url=https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engineers/ |access-date=February 3, 2025 |date=February 2, 2025 |work=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250202191023/https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engineers/ |archive-date=February 2, 2025}} Farritor currently holds a General Services Administration (GSA) email and A-suite level clearance, with access to all GSA physical spaces and IT systems, according to Wired. He is also an executive engineer in the office of the secretary of Health and Human Services. CNN reported on February 6, 2025, that Energy Secretary Chris Wright had that day granted Farritor access to the department's computer systems.{{cite news |last1=Nilsen |first1=Ella |title=Trump energy secretary allowed 23-year-old DOGE rep to access IT systems over objections from general counsel |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/06/climate/doge-energy-department-trump/index.html |publisher=CNN |date=February 6, 2025}} In this position, Farritor manually vetoed payments to the HIV/AIDS relief program PEPFAR, even after some payments had been approved by White House officials and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.{{cite news |last1=Bai |first1=Matt |title=The blinding contempt of the DOGE bros |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/24/musk-doge-usaid-cuts-dc/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 24, 2025 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250224161550/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/24/musk-doge-usaid-cuts-dc/ |archive-date=February 24, 2025}}{{Cite news |issn=1091-2339 |last=Mathis-Lilley |first=Ben |title=I Think It's Bad That Nazi-Adjacent Youths Might Be Overruling the President and Secretary of State |work=Slate |access-date=2025-03-02 |date=2025-02-26 |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/02/doge-elon-musk-donald-trump-marco-rubio.html}}{{Cite press release |title=Emergency Humanitarian Waiver to Foreign Assistance Pause |work=United States Department of State |access-date=2025-03-02 |url=https://www.state.gov/emergency-humanitarian-waiver-to-foreign-assistance-pause-2/}}
Farritor became a full time government employee effective May 31, 2025 at a General Schedule (US civil service pay scale) grade of GS-15 (the top grade).{{Cite magazine| title = ‘Big Balls’ Is Officially a Full-Time Government Employee | access-date = 2025-06-04| url = https://www.wired.com/story/big-balls-young-doge-converted-into-full-time-government-employees/}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
{{United States Department of Government Efficiency}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farritor, Luke}}
Category:Department of Government Efficiency people
Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni
Category:21st-century American engineers