Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
President-elect Trump on Sunday announced several new appointments to science and AI policy posts.
Why it matters: Who Trump surrounds himself with — from his Cabinet to lower level officials to outsider advisers — will have a profound impact on how tech policy is carried out.
Michael Kratsios is Trump's pick to be the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), a Senate-confirmed position.
- He'll serve as an assistant to the president for science and technology, Trump posted, and will be advising Trump's so-called AI and crypto czar David Sacks.
- Kratsios, the managing director at Scale AI, has been helping to lead tech policy during the transition.
- He was chief technology officer during Trump's first term, serving as the president's top tech adviser, and also was the acting under secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
- He joined the Trump White House from Peter Thiel's world, having served as his chief of staff and a principal at Thiel Capital.
Lynne Parker will serve as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST), and counselor to the director of OSTP.
- Parker was deputy CTO in Trump's first term. She also served as director of the National AI Initiative Office, which launched under Trump, and left her post in 2022.
- Parker this year announced her retirement from the University of Tennessee.
Sriram Krishnan will serve as senior policy advisor for AI at OSTP, per Trump's announcement, and started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure.
- Krishnan will work closely with Sacks to shape and coordinate AI policy, Trump said.
What they're saying: "Together, we will unleash scientific breakthroughs, ensure America's technological dominance, and usher in a Golden Age of American Innovation!" Trump posted.
