The White House announced Wednesday the first appointments to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the body established by executive order to advise the president on matters of scientific research, technological development, and national competitiveness. The council will be co-chaired by David Sacks, the administration's AI and cryptocurrency czar, and Michael Kratsios, a technology investor who served as chief technology officer during Trump's first term. [1]

The full roster reads like an investor conference speaker list. Marc Andreessen. Sergey Brin. Lisa Su. Michael Dell. Jensen Huang, who leads the company currently valued as the world's most important chipmaker. Mark Zuckerberg, whose appointment to a science advisory body is, depending on one's perspective, either recognition of Meta's AI research division or a reward for his post-election political recalibration. Patrick Collison, the Stripe co-founder. Shaka Senghor, a criminal justice advocate. Not a single appointment holds a current academic research position. [2]

PCAST has existed in some form since 1933. Its historical membership has included Nobel laureates, directors of national laboratories, university presidents, and researchers whose work shaped fields from nuclear physics to genomics. The council's mandate, as stated in the executive order, includes advising on "the scientific and technological enterprise of the Nation" and "scientific research priorities."

"Non-scientists," wrote Ars Technica in its headline. "Tech bros," wrote The Register. Both publications noted the same structural absence: the body charged with advising the president on science contains no one whose primary occupation is the practice of science.

The timing adds a layer. The United States is engaged in military operations that involve satellite communications, GPS-guided munitions, cyber operations against Iranian infrastructure, and electronic warfare in the Strait of Hormuz. Space Command has been monitoring Iranian counter-space activities since the first week of the conflict. The scientific questions embedded in this war — about electromagnetic spectrum management, about satellite vulnerability, about the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure — are not questions that venture capital has equipped anyone to answer.

Sacks, who built his career at PayPal and Craft Ventures, framed his appointment as an honor. Andreessen posted that he was "honored and grateful." The language of gratitude has replaced the language of qualification. No one on the council was asked what they have discovered. They were asked what they have funded.

The council is tasked with producing its first report within 120 days. The report will address AI competitiveness with China, a subject on which several members have direct commercial interests and zero peer-reviewed publications. Whether the president needs scientific advisors or technology lobbyists is, apparently, a question the executive order has already answered.

-- Kenji Nakamura, Tokyo