Right, so Donald Trump has decided he wants to meet with tech leaders later this month to talk about things like drones.
No, seriously.
When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. After all, Trump is amazed at technology.
Recall, for instance, how impressed he was to discover that the US had unmanned missiles (timestamp is 1:02):
Trump remembers details of cake he was eating while launching missiles, but not which country he was attacking. pic.twitter.com/TYfqXXDeCZ
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) April 12, 2017
Now obviously there are all kinds of hilarious things about that clip (Trump mistaking Syria for Iraq, Trump bragging about how big the chocolate cake was, etc.), but don’t let the sheer absurdity of the outrageously ridiculous parts obscure the more subtle humor in the unmanned missiles bit. Here’s the transcript:
Yes, “brilliant.” No wait: “genius.”
So given that, one imagines that Trump talking to tech leaders about drones and the Internet of things will be like taking a caveman to an IMAX screening of Guardians Of The Galaxy. “It’s so incredible.”
Here are some of the details from BuzzFeed:
Three sources confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is organizing the event, scheduled for June 22 – three days after Trump is expected to meet with the likes of Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz and technology executives in Washington. While that first gathering is said to focus on topics including immigration and modernizing government operations, the second meeting, which is being organized by U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios, will address emerging technologies trends including the Internet of Things, commercial drones and the funding of those companies.
While the full agenda for the June 22 meeting has not been set, one person familiar with the event who was not authorized to speak on the record said that there will be breakout discussions at the White House that will discuss the state of certain technologies and the regulations that surround them.
For those wondering what the tech leaders who will attend this event are thinking, Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo will be glad to help you conceptualize the “Trump experience”…
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