Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty will be among the company executives who will be joining a Trump administration advisory board set to deal with the effects of artificial intelligence and automation on the workforce. According to Reuters, the panel will be co-chaired by Ivanka Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Board members will serve until 2020.
The panel — which also includes executives from companies including Walmart, Home Depot, Visa, Siemens USA and Lockheed Martin — was created by an executive order signed by President Trump in July 2018. The order stated that “for too long, our country’s education and job training programs have prepared Americans for the economy of the past.” Members of the panel will work with the National Council for the American Worker to develop strategies on how to improve the American workforce and position workers to deal with a changing economy.
This is not the Trump administration’s first attempt at a panel like this. The President dissolved the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum after a number of executives quit. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk were among the company heads to jump ship from the original advisory boards.