Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is heading the fall meeting of the Defense Innovation Board to help advise the Pentagon for the first time on Monday.
Bloomberg, selected in February and sworn in as the panel's chairman in June, will oversee a meeting featuring a "restocked" panel of technologists, academics, and former military and political leaders, Politico reported.
Bloomberg succeeds inaugural Chair Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, who tried to infuse a Silicon Valley spirit to the Pentagon's planning and investments, Politico noted.
Established in 2016, the board held a closed session — with an expected public meeting Monday afternoon — and was hosted by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Heidi Shyu, undersecretary for research and engineering. Seven new board members were seated.
The board's charter calls for members "appointed to provide advice on the basis of his or her individual best judgment without representing any particular point of view and in a manner that is free from conflict of interest."
And, according to the charter, it cannot "advise on individual [Department of Defense] procurements, but instead shall be concerned with the pressing and complex technological problems facing the DOD."
Previous recommendations by the board led to the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, principles for the development and use of artificial intelligence, and a shift to more software development, Politico reported.
Bloomberg's marching orders coincide with that mission, the news outlet reported, tasking him to provide "independent advice and recommendations on how to accelerate innovation and compete in a technology-and-innovation-driven environment."
Bloomberg has maintained that "our largest government agency must also be our most forward-thinking," Politico reported.
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