Even as the politics of tech have changed, Eric Schmidt’s influence within Democratic administrations has remained steady. But do his connections cross an ethical line?
of What Next: TBD, I spoke with Thompson about the murky web between Eric Schmidt and the White House science office. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.Alex Thompson: Eric Schmidt and Eric Lander are incredibly close. Since 2012, Eric Schmidt has been on the board of the Broad Institute, where Eric Lander was the founding director. They both served together on the president’s science council during the Obama administration.
During the Trump administration, he ended up serving as chair of this Congress-created commission called the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Basically, their job was to help set priorities for artificial intelligence in national security. And he was the chair of it. They produced this huge
We already know that over a dozen associates of Schmidt’s, including current and former employees, landed at the science office, which is only about 150 people. He has close relationships with Eric Lander. Several of the people that worked on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence that he chaired also landed at OSTP. Former Google employees landed at OSTP.
The funding is what raised the first red flags. In the words of Rachel Wallace, it raised “significant ethical concerns.” In particular, when they wrote in that email that they had secured Schmidt Futures funding for this person, in that email they also noted that they had looped in Tom Kalil, who was still working at Schmidt Futures. So Rachel Wallace said her urgent and immediate advice is, “You need to get Tom Kalil away from anything dealing with Schmidt Futures.
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