Luke Farritor (born 2001/2002) [1] is an American software engineer who is currently serving at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). [2] [3]
Luke is the son of Shane Farritor, a University of Nebraska–Lincoln professor from Ravenna. [4] Luke interned at SpaceX in 2023. [5] That year, he won a $250,000 prize from the Vesuvius Challenge for using artificial intelligence to decipher one of the Herculaneum Papyri scrolls. [6] [7] [8] Farritor's AI program segmented images of the scroll into 100 pixels by 100 pixels to determine the characters written in ink. [5] [9] [10]
Farritor studied computer science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, before dropping out to become a Thiel Fellow in 2024. [11] [12]
Farritor was appointed to the Department of Government Efficiency in 2025, and is among a group of 19–24 year olds at the agency. [13] 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. [13] He is also an executive engineer in the office of the secretary of Health and Human Services. [1]