Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Tech Titans Make Pilgrimage to White House to Discuss Government Systems - The New York Times

Just another day in White House Reality TV
"“Government needs to catch up with the technology revolution,” said Mr. Trump, who strolled in at the end of the meeting to greet the tech titans. “We’re going to change that with the help of great American businesses like the people assembled.”   
He later said, drawing laughter, “We have approximately $3.5 trillion of market value in this room — but that’s almost the exact number that we’ve created since my election.”

Few technology specialists from the White House attended. The administration has not filled several major science and technology positions. But the business and economics team closest to the president attended, including Gary D. Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, and Dina Powell, senior counselor for economic initiatives."
Also see What you need to know about Trump’s meeting with tech CEOs (The Washington Post), which concludes:
"“The whole belief that you're going to bring these high-level thinkers to a table for an hour or two and have them solve all these things is at the heart of what this administration's problems are,” said one tech industry official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the topic more freely. “As Trump has said, 'Who knew health care could be so difficult?' Well, who knew that cloud infrastructure could be so difficult? Who knew that Big Data could be so difficult? They're all about the scalps in the room.”"
Tech Titans Make Pilgrimage to White House to Discuss Government Systems - The New York Times

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