Tech execs join the Army. Critics say it's an ethical minefield

USA Today

14 hours ago

The Army commissioned four executives from tech companies, including Palantir, Meta and OpenAI, as reserve officers at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
WASHINGTON − When the Army announced it would commission four executives from some of Silicon Valley's top tech giants as lieutenant colonels in the reserves, critics said they could use their insider positions to win lucrative military contracts for their employers.
Now, the Army and one of the executives say, tech isn't even part of the assignment.
"What I'll be working on has actually not that much to do directly with technology or AI," Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer at data analysis giant Palantir, told USA TODAY. Sankar said he will focus on recruitment and "talent." Palantir has hundreds of millions of dollars in Pentagon tech contracts.
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"I have to work on things where I don't have a conflict, as determined by lawyers," Sankar said on July 7. "This was just a safe space for me.'
The other three tech execs will work on subjects including 'autonomy,' 'human performance' and the 'organizational organic industrial base,' according to Maj. Matthew Visser, an Army spokesperson.
'Getting them on the inside'
The Army says the four executives – Sankar of Palantir, Andrew Bosworth of Meta, Kevin Weil of OpenAI and Bob McGrew of AI startup Thinking Machines Lab – will be well positioned as officers in the Army Reserves to help address large-scale issues.
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Servicemembers on reserve duty join the military part-time – most hold other jobs and serve on duty one weekend per month and two full weeks per year.
But the Army has implied the four were brought in last month specifically to lend tech expertise.
"They've got this sixth sense," Steve Warren, an Army spokesperson, said of the four newly minted lieutenant colonels. 'These guys will help us think about how we're using things like AI and bleeding edge technologies in a different way.'
Warren said they will provide 'advice' and 'insights' as the Army undergoes a top-to-bottom overhaul called the 'Army transformation initiative.'
Kickstarted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in May, the initiative will see the Army cut back on 'outdated equipment,' like some ground vehicles, and prioritize high-tech gadgets like drones and AI – the four executives' area of expertise. A memo from Hegseth directs the Army to "enable AI-driven command and control" throughout its headquarters by 2027 and field drones in every division by 2026.
Critics say bringing in the tech executives is an ethical minefield.
Combined, the executives' companies hold more than a billion dollars in military contracts. Palantir, which has drawn scrutiny over reports that it's compiling Americans' personal data and surveiling possible targets of immigration enforcement, was awarded a $795 million contract by the Army in May. The company's Pentagon contracts are primarily to design AI systems that crunch large amounts of data to come up with potential strike targets.
Meta announced the same month it had been tapped to build virtual reality headsets for Army soldiers, and OpenAI won a $200 million contract to develop artificial intelligence for the Army in June. Only Thinking Machines Lab has no Army contracts; McGrew formerly worked stints at both OpenAI and Palantir, according to his LinkedIn profile.
"Clearly, they have blatant conflicts of interest," said Dru Brenner-Beck, a retired lieutenant colonel and Army lawyer who served as deputy general counsel for the Army inspector general.
"I would certainly have questions if I was one of the competitors of these particular organizations,' Brenner-Beck said.
Sankar said he first pitched his desire to join up around a year and a half ago and personally recruited the three others to the effort. He spoke with multiple services but landed on the Army, he said, for its 'state of mind.' The motive: sheer patriotism and desire to help the military succeed, he said.
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"They're patriots; they see what's happening to the country," Sankar said of his tech brothers-in-arms. Of critics, he said, "It's amazing how cynical we've become on the eve of the 250th anniversary (of the United States).'
Outside experts brought into the military to advise are so common that they have their own title within the Pentagon – "highly qualified experts."
Commissioning them directly into a military role – and at the rank of lieutenant colonel, which normally takes around 17 years to achieve – is not.
"Part of this is getting them on the inside," Warren said of the decision to give the four Army ranks. "We want them invested."
Hegseth and China
The Army has said the four's corporate ties would be no more problematic than those of other reserve officers, some of whom work jobs at defense contractors outside of their military service. Like other reservists, the tech executives were required to fill out forms declaring potential conflicts of interest. Those forms are reviewed by military lawyers, who can order servicemembers to divest from stocks or investments that might touch on their Army service.
The four will arrive at Fort Benning in Georgia by the end of July for their initial training, where they'll be taught "which hand to salute with," and other fundamentals of being an officer, Warren said. They are subject to the same physical fitness standards and will take the tests required of any other reserve officer, according to Maj. Visser.
Commissioning businesspeople into the Army is also not without precedent. During World War II, as the U.S. economy shifted into high gear to support the war effort, some industry leaders were commissioned directly into the military, like General Motors President William Knudsen, who the Army commissioned at the much higher rank of lieutenant general in 1942.
Sankar has argued that China poses a threat comparable or greater than what the U.S. faced during World War II and the Cold War, a view endorsed by Hegseth and some in his inner circle. That belief also hangs in the background of the Army Transformation Initiative, which is aimed at "deterring China," according to Hegseth.
Skeptics say it's the tail wagging the dog.
The shift, as evidenced by the new tech officers, is 'not as driven by the needs of the military as it is by the tremendous AI hype that's been produced by those very companies' to which they belong, said Shannon French, the Inamori Professor in Ethics at Case Western Reserve University who taught military ethics for 11 years at the U.S. Naval Academy.
The growing overlap between weapons manufacturers and companies with vast surveillance capacity has sparked broader public concern, along with the Trump administration's moves to dismantle AI regulations and President Donald Trump's chummy relationships with some of Silicon Valley's wealthiest executives − most notably Elon Musk, who led Trump's efforts to slash the federal government, but has since explosively broken with the administration.