
Top executives from OpenAI, Meta and Palantir became army lieutenant colonels
Three top executives from leading artificial intelligence companies received the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. These people will also head a special unit “Unit 201”. Among them are Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and OpenAI Product Director Kevin Weil.
Army Chief of Staff’s chief press secretary Colonel Dave Butler stated that this is necessary for urgent technological transformation of the U.S. armed forces.
“Unit 201” was created to attract leaders from the technology world. They will help with personnel – attract and train people with technological experience. This is part of the Trump administration’s course on cooperation with technology companies. The government is already working with Palantir and Anduril, and candidate for deputy army secretary Michael Obadal works at Anduril.
Their task is strategic advice and work on individual projects to accelerate army development. As Butler noted, previously the best specialists were drafted during war, and now this is done in advance. Only one thing is unclear to me. Does this mean that top managers of these companies now report directly to their army superiors?