Trump Stacked Tech Council With ‘Star Power,’ David Sacks Says

Sure. Thank you. So PCAST is the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. It's a group that's been around since the presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush. I think that was around 1990, so it's been around for over 30 years. And the version of it that was created by Bush 41 was actually building on a group that was first established by FDR. So this Council of Advisors has been around for a long time. And the idea is to gather some of the best and brightest minds in the country on cutting edge technologies to make recommendations to the president and the White House on issues that obviously can have a great impact on the American economy and our security and on innovation policy. And so we're pleased to announce this group. The president just named the first 15 people. We can have up to 24. And these are, I think, some of the biggest luminaries and stars in the world of science and technology. And this group will meet periodically to again, make recommendations to the president, the White House. Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, who I think also served on the council in 2001 under George W. Bush and so has some experience of that.

Well, first of all, I think there's a variety of technological expertise. You could have people there who are in the world of software. Others are in the world of chips or advanced semiconductors. We have folks who have won Nobel Prizes for physics, who've done breakthroughs in quantum computing or fusion or small modular reactors. So there's actually a range of skills there. I'd say the other point that's noteworthy is that these people are builders, they're doers. There are people who have actually not just done research or academia, but they've actually built companies, a lot of cases around their inventions. And so I think there's a strong emphasis on what you might call applied experience here. I would say that of the different councils that have been created, this one, I think you'd have to say, has the most star power of any group like this that's been created.

Well, I think that the way that PCAST usually works, it's a federal advisory committee and we engage in studies and we gather evidence, then we make recommendations, and then those studies eventually can turn into policy. That's the purpose of it is to provide the White House with high quality advice from some of the best minds in these areas of cutting edge science and technology. So, again, you know, we'll look things like AI. Obviously, this is a huge issue right now, the impact it's going to have on our economy, on jobs, on national security. I think you can expect us to make some recommendations in those areas. We want to push forward the president's AI framework that was already released just last week. So you'll see, I think, a lot of activity around that. But it will also be other areas as well. Like I said, advanced semiconductors, quantum computing, nuclear power. These are all the areas that you can expect PCAST to look at.

Yes, I mean, I had a role in the first year of the Trump administration as a special government employee. That was 130 days. We've now used up that time. And I think moving forward as co-chair of PCAST, I can now make recommendations on not just AI but an expanded range of technology topics. So yes, this is how I'll be involved moving forward.