Since last March, the Department of Health and Human Services has been using AI tools from Palantir to screen and audit grants, grant applications, and job descriptions for noncompliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting “gender ideology” and anything related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), according to a recently published inventory of all use cases HHS had for AI in 2025.

Neither Palantir nor HHS has publicly announced that the company’s software was being used for these purposes. During the first year of Trump’s second term, Palantir earned more than $35 million in payments and obligations from HHS alone. None of the descriptions for these transactions mention this work targeting DEI or “gender ideology.”

The audits have been taking place within HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which funds family and child welfare and oversees the foster and adoption systems. Palantir is the sole contractor charged with making a list of “position descriptions that may need to be adjusted for alignment with recent executive orders.”

In addition to Palantir, the startup Credal AI—which was founded by two Palantir alumni—helped ACF audit “existing grants and new grant applications.” The “AI-based” grant review process, the inventory says, “reviews application submission files and generates initial flags and priorities for discussion.” All relevant information is then routed to the ACF Program Office for final review.

ACF staffers ultimately review any job descriptions, grants, and grant applications that are flagged by AI during a “final review” stage, according to the inventory. It also says that these particular AI use cases are currently “deployed” within ACF, meaning that they are actively being used at the agency.

Last year, ACF paid Credal AI about $750,000 to provide the company’s “Tech Enterprise Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Platform,” but the payment descriptions in the Federal Register do not mention DEI or “gender ideology.”

HHS, ACF, Palantir, and Credal AI did not return WIRED’s requests for comment.

The executive orders—Executive Order 14151, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” and Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”—were both issued on Trump’s first day in office last year.

The first of these orders demands an end to any policies, programs, contracts, grants that mention or concern DEIA, DEI, “equity,” or “environmental justice,” and charges the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the attorney general with leading these efforts.

The second order demands that all “interpretation of and application” of federal laws and policies define “sex” as an “immutable biological classification” and define the only genders as “male” and “female.” It deems “gender ideology” and “gender identity” to be “false” and “disconnected from biological reality.” It also says that no federal funds can be used “to promote gender ideology.”

“Each agency shall assess grant conditions and grantee preferences and ensure grant funds do not promote gender ideology,” it reads.

The consequences of Executive Order 14151, targeting DEI, and Executive Order 14168, targeting “gender ideology,” have been felt deeply throughout the country over the past year.

Early last year, the National Science Foundation started to flag any research that contained terms associated with DEI—including relatively general terms, like “female,” “inclusion,” “systemic,” or “underrepresented”—and place it under official review. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began retracting or pausing research that mentioned terms like “LGBT,” “transsexual,” or “nonbinary,” and stopped processing any data related to transgender people. Last July, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration removed an LGBTQ youth service line offered by the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Tired of the crackly, flat audio that’s constantly blaring from your television’s built-in speakers? A sound bar is a simple and effective way to massively improve your movie nights, and our favorite pick for most people, the Yamaha SR-C30A, is currently marked down at Amazon. You can grab the soundbar and included subwoofer for just $230, a $50 discount from the usual price.

You don’t need to be a surround sound expert to get a big boost from the SR-C30A. Thanks to HDMI eARC, all you need to get up and running is an HDMI connection to the television, and power for both the soundbar and the subwoofer. Everything else, including matching volume and turning off the TV’s speakers, is handled instantly and automatically. There are handy presets for other functions too, like a mode specifically for playing video games, and a 3D movie mode that helps improve the spatial audio performance. Having used a similar Yamaha soundbar for several years, I found the “Clear Voice” function particularly useful for helping adjust the levels to help dialogue cut through the mix.

Unlike some of the other more expensive picks from our list, the SR-C30A comes bundled with a surprisingly adept subwoofer. The big, dedicated speaker can slide under or behind your couch, giving a huge boost to the cinematic experience, and making those action movie explosions really come through. It’s even wireless, so you don’t need to find room for it directly under your screen, which is particularly nice if you’re wall-mounting your TV or have a smaller entertainment stand.

If you’re limited on space for speakers, you should know that the SR-C30A does double duty as a dedicated speaker for music and podcasts too. With built-in Bluetooth, as well as an aux input, you can easily send your favorite songs over for some quick listening while working around the house or having folks over.

While we think the Yamaha SR-C30A is an excellent pick for anyone who just wants their soundbar to work without thinking about it much, we have a full roundup of the best soundbars that includes more premium picks.

Consider These Floodlight Cameras

Reolink Elite Floodlight WiFi (Wired) for $230: Similar to our Reolink pick above, the difference with the Elite Floodlight is that it’s a fixed dual-lens camera designed to give you a wide 180-degree view (59 degrees vertically), rather than a pan-and-tilt camera. If you want a fixed camera to cover the entire side of a property, this could be a solid pick. It records up to 4K video at up to 20 frames per second, has a 105-decibel alarm, and supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6. The rest of the specs, including the two-panel, 3,000-lumen, adjustable temperature floodlight, match the TrackFlex above.

Google Nest Cam With Floodlight (Wired) for $280: This aging floodlight security camera might still be your best bet if you prefer Google Home and have a Nest doorbell. The limited 1080p resolution is mitigated by the high frame rate (30 fps), HDR, and decent 6X digital zoom. The two-panel floodlight can put out up to 2,400 lumens of warm (4,000K) light, and brightness is adjustable. Google’s AI detection is perhaps the smartest in the business, and this is a very reliable camera, but you must subscribe to make it worthwhile, as there’s no local recording option. Google Home Premium starts at $10 per month or $100 per year, but that covers all your devices. It might be best to wait, as Google recently released 2K Nest cameras, and there’s a decent chance it will update its floodlight camera soon.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Philips Hue Secure Camera for $130 and Discover Floodlight (Wired) for $160: Strictly speaking, these are two separate devices, but I used this setup at my old house, and it worked very well. If you’re invested in Hue lighting, the Discover Floodlight is one of my favorite outdoor lights and a versatile way to light up your space. It can put out 2,300 lumens, and you can tweak the temperature, color, and brightness easily in the Hue app, which also allows scheduling and animated scenes. Add a Philips Hue Secure Wired Camera and you can have it trigger the floodlight and any other Hue lights you have. It is only 1080p, but the wired camera worked well for me, triggering reliably, and Philips Hue now offers 24 hours of video history for free. But if you want the AI detection, back-to-back recording, activity zones, and 30 days of video history, you must subscribe for $40 a year for a single camera.

Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera (Battery) for $250: An obvious pick for folks with an Arlo system, this battery-powered camera allows for a wireless install, though you will need to charge it. It offers up to 2K footage with HDR and Arlo’s excellent app and alert system, though you need an Arlo Secure plan ($10 per month or $96 a year for a single camera, $20 per month or $216 a year for unlimited cameras). The floodlight is a single panel that flanks the face of the camera and delivers up to 2,000 lumens. You can boost the brightness to 3,000 lumens and eliminate event recording delays with the Arlo Outdoor Charging Cable ($50), though you’ll need to run it to an outlet. Arlo has a newer, wired floodlight camera that I plan to test soon.

Eve Outdoor Cam (Wired) for $249: This stylish floodlight camera can replace an outdoor light to give you a motion-activated light (up to 1,500 lumens), 1080p video (157-degree field of view), and two-way audio. As a HomeKit camera, you will need an Apple HomeKit hub (Apple TV, HomePod, or iPad) and an iCloud+ storage plan. Sadly, the video and sound quality are only average. This camera also only works on 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi, and there’s no Android support.

Floodlight Cameras We Don’t Recommend

Toucan Security Floodlight Camera (Wired) for $80: You can plug this camera into an outlet, and it comes with an 8-meter waterproof cable. It has a motion-activated light (1,200 lumens), records 1080p video, and supports two-way audio. I found the footage quite detailed, but it struggled with direct sunlight. You can record locally on a microSD card (sold separately) and get 24 hours of free cloud storage, but it has limitations. Plans start from $3 per month. Even with motion detection set to the lowest sensitivity, this camera triggered too often during testing, and there’s no way to filter for people, so I got frequent false positives (blowing leaves, moths, and birds all triggered alerts).

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