Four high-ranking technology executives have joined the U.S. Army Reserve as lieutenant colonels to help bring commercial tech expertise into military operations.
The Army made the announcement through a press release published on June 13.
According to the Army, Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer at Palantir; Andrew Bosworth, Chief Technology Officer at Meta; Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer at OpenAI; and Bob McGrew, advisor at Thinking Machines Lab and former Chief Research Officer at OpenAI—will join Detachment 201, a new “Executive Innovation Corps.”
These executives will continue their civilian jobs while serving part-time in the Reserve. They will work on specific projects aimed at speeding up innovation and making the Army more efficient and effective.
“By bringing private-sector know-how into uniform, Detachment 201 is supercharging efforts like the Army Transformation Initiative, which aims to make the force leaner, smarter, and more lethal,” the Army said.
“Their swearing-in is just 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,” the Army added.
The Army did not say how many members will make up Detachment 201 or when new members will join.
The companies represented in the unit are actively involved in both past and ongoing innovations for the Department of Defense.
Palantir provides both software and hardware tools to the U.S. military, including the Maven system and the TITAN vehicle. Its Vantage data platform is currently used by 100,000 Army personnel.
OpenAI has partnered with defense technology company Anduril Industries to integrate its AI models into systems used by the U.S. military to counter drone threats. Meta is also collaborating with Anduril to develop extended reality tools for U.S. soldiers.
