Why The U.S. Army Made Four Tech Executives Lieutenant Colonels

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🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

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Summary

Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, OpenAI Head of Product Kevin Weil, and Thinking Machines Lab advisor Bob McGrew are now lieutenant colonels in the U.S. Army Reserves.

They're part of a military unit called Detachment 201, also known as the the Executive Innovation Corps. Their US Army says their swearing in is the "start of a bigger mission to inspire more tech pros to serve without leaving their careers, showing the next generation how to make a difference in uniform."

We discuss what the Army hoping to innovate and the capacity these tech executives will serve in the armed forces.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:26.7	The U.S. Army Reserves has four surprising new officers.
0:34.8	On June 13th, four executives at major technology companies, including meta and open AI, were sworn in as lieutenant colonels.
0:38.0	The Army says the exec's newfound status is part of a, quote, new initiative designed to fuse cutting edge tech expertise with military innovation.
0:45.0	So what does that mean? What is the Army hoping to innovate? And how are these new officers
0:50.1	meant to serve in the armed forces? You're listening to the 1A podcast. I'm Naila Boodoo,
0:55.4	in for Jen White. Stay with us. We've got a lot to get into. Let's meet our panel.
1:06.5	Joining us in studio is Sean McFaite. He's a professor at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He's also a former paratrooper in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division and a former private military contractor in Africa. Sean, welcome back to OneA.
1:21.0	Wonderful to be back.
1:22.2	Joining us from New York City is Stephen Levy. He's an editor at large for Wired.
1:26.5	Stephen, thank you for joining us as well.
1:28.4	My pleasure. Thank you.
1:29.8	Stephen, let's start with a backdrop to this story.
1:32.1	Where did this idea to have tech executives join the armed forces originate based on the reporting you've been doing?
1:38.9	Sure. So the Pentagon, as this person in charge of talent management, he's an officer, a former
1:48.8	officer who served in combat, and then went to Walmart and headed their veteran employment
1:57.8	programs, and then came back to the Pentagon for this talent management.
2:04.3	And he had been talking to some people in Silicon Valley, including an executive at Palance here,
2:10.4	and was talking about getting Silicon Valley smarts into the military,
2:16.3	which is a trend that's been happening for the past few years.
	...

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