Why Is Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt Technically Serving In The Department Of Defense?
Why Is Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt Technically Serving In
The Department Of Defense?
By Eric Lieberman 3:24 PM 12/24/2017
Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google parent company
Alphabet, was appointed chairman of a Department of Defense program in 2016
that was established by former President Barack Obama’s administration.
A staunch supporter of the Democratic Party and critic of
President Donald Trump, Schmidt still continues to lead the Defense Innovation
Board (DIB), even well after the new administration took over in January. This
begs the question: should Schmidt’s history of partisan advocacy and
condemnation of Trump be a worrisome prospect for the current White House?
Regardless of the answer, Trump’s retention of Schmidt
may be emblematic of more than political divisiveness within the current
administration, like from “Obama holdovers.” In fact, it may be the opposite of
unwanted internal discord and a sign of an underlying ethos for the Trump
administration — diversity of thought.
“When you look at the composition of the initial Economic
Advisory Board, it kind of reminds me of what Trump is doing here,” Justin
Danhof, general counsel of the National Center for Public Policy Research and
director of the Free Enterprise Project, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“He’s putting together a team of rivals. If you want to get to the best ideas,
you can’t have everyone in the room thinking the same thing.”
Alphabet announced on Thursday that Schmidt will be
stepping down in January, marking the seeming end to a 17-year-career at Google
and its parent company. It’s quite likely that he will maintain economic and
personal interests in the business, especially since he’s expected to stay on
as a member of Alphabet’s board of directors and serve as an adviser.
The DIB was formally created in March 2016, and former
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter later announced that Schmidt would be heading
the organization. Other specifically chosen board members include famous
astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Wharton
School of Business professor Dr. Adam Grant, Instagram COO Marne Levine,
University of Texas chancellor and former Special Operations Command commander
Navy Adm. William McRaven, among several others.
Some, like David Williams, president of the Taxpayers
Protection Alliance, saw Schmidt’s taking of the helm as somewhat disconcerting
given the “open-door policy” the Obama administration allegedly had with one of
the country’s most powerful companies.
“There needs to be a massive amount of oversight with
this Board,” Williams told TheDCNF. “If the DOD is contemplating new technology
to address a new defense need, will it be skewed toward a technology that
benefits Google or one of the companies? Massive potential for conflicts of
interest with real taxpayer implications.”
And it’s not just personal business affairs that are
concerning to some — Schmidt’s own brand of politics could conceivably come
into play, whether intentionally or subconsciously. He was spotted wearing a
staff badge during then-Democratic candidate for president Hillary Clinton’s
election night party. Not long after, Schmidt reportedly told an audience of
employees that Trump is “going to do these evil things as they’ve done in the immigration
area and perhaps some others.”
In correlation with his statements to employees, Alphabet
also reportedly spearheaded the funding efforts for the legal brief signed by
nearly 100 companies that objected to Trump’s temporary immigration ban.
But due to the work of the DIB — which mainly centers
around projects like modernizing military bases and ensuring defense systems
are sufficiently up to date — it appears that personal politics likely has a
minimal impact.
“The Defense Innovation Board is focused on supporting
the Department of Defense on issues, such as AI, data analytics, software
acquisition, and shaping the culture of the DOD workforce. These issues know no
partisan boundaries,” Navy Cmdr. Patrick Evans, who does press operations for
the Pentagon, told TheDCNF. “DOD cares about enhancing lethality, strengthening
alliances and partnerships, and reforming the Department. DIB is about
advancing the Department and serving the American public, not politics.”
Google declined to comment on the record and referred
TheDCNF to the DOD for any statements or insight.
A top representative for Google was sure to add, though,
that Schmidt serves on the board in a personal respect, separate from his work
at Alphabet or its subsidiaries.
Conversely, Schmidt could arguably be more than a good
fit for the DIB given its overarching goals.
The program “seeks to advise the department on areas that
are deeply familiar to Silicon Valley companies, such as rapid prototyping,
iterative product development, complex data analysis in business decision
making, and organizational information sharing,” Evans explains.
“Then-Secretary Carter selected the board to represent a cross-section of
America’s most innovative industries, drawing on technical and management
expertise from across the country.”
Furthermore, Alphabet is a tech conglomerate that, along
with other functions, serves as a corporate umbrella for several subsidiaries
including Google. Most notably, Alphabet includes X lab, which serves as an
incubator for startups, meaning the larger holding company also acts as a hub
for technological research and development.
Williams says that “the idea of the DIB isn’t a bad one”
because updating the government’s services and infrastructure is needed.
“The only concern is that there’s too much of an emphasis
on tinkering rather than fundamental reforms, like ending big failing spending
programs,” he added, implying that innovation may distract from more necessary
changes, like deep cuts to costly expenditures.
Danhof says the DIB is a great idea, even with the
prospect of it backfiring for Trump if board members resign out of political
protest.
“If you think about how laggard the U.S. government is
when it comes to innovation and technology breakthroughs, if you look at the
backlog that’s at the VA [Department of Veteran Affairs], if Eric Schmidt could
do even one thing to improve something like that, then I think that this should
be cheered as a great success,” Danhof asserted. “President Trump should be
cheered for thinking outside the box and going with someone who has spoken out
against him, who is a political rival in a sense in that he supports the other
party full lock, stock, and barrel. Trump is willing to look past all of that
to try to find the best people to help this government operate better.”
While also commending Obama for the board’s creation,
Danhof said having Schmidt stay on the board is a true sign of Trump’s acute
business acumen since any good business operator or owner doesn’t hire people
merely because they think the same way and are likable.
“You hire someone who’s the best person for the job,”
Danhof continued. “If it’s how we technologically innovate, why wouldn’t you
think of one of the founders of Google, even if he is against you in almost
everything you say, think, or do in a political standpoint?”
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