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Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Army bringing in tech executives as lieutenant colonels
Four senior executives of tech giants like Meta and Palantir are being sworn into the Army Reserve as direct-commissioned officers at the unusually high rank of lieutenant colonel as part of a new program to recruit private-sector experts to speed up tech adoption. The Army calls the program to recruit Silicon Valley executives Detachment 201: The Army's Executive Innovation Corps. The program is aimed at bringing in part-time advisors from the private sector to help the service adopt and scale commercial technology like drones and robots into its formations. The Reserve's new Lt. Cols. are Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer for Palantir; Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer of Meta; Kevin Weil, chief product officer of OpenAI; and Bob McGrew, an advisor at Thinking Machines Lab and former chief research officer for OpenAI. They are being sworn into the Reserve on Friday. Army officials told Task & Purpose that the four executives will all attend the Army's six-week Direct Commissioning Course at Fort Benning, Georgia and will complete the Army Fitness Test and marksmanship training. All four have spent decades at some of Silicon Valley's leading tech giants and fast-growing start-ups, roles that have made them each multi-millionaires several times over. Each now work at firms that have expressed interest in developing business with the Pentagon. The idea of incorporating private-sector expertise is a lesson the Army says it learned from Ukraine as soldiers there who are engineers or computer scientists in their day jobs are MacGyvering makeshift drones or 3D printing parts to use on the front lines against Russia. All four of the executives now work at companies investing heavily in emerging fields like AI and machine learning, two subjects that the Army is looking to fold into future weapon systems. Palantir and OpenAI have been contractors for the Department of Defense, with Meta has announced a partnership with Anduril for troop augmented and virtual reality devices. 'I have accepted this commission in a personal capacity because I am deeply invested in helping advance American technological innovation,' Bosworth wrote in a post on X, adding that their primary role will be as technical experts for Army modernization efforts. Bosworth is one of four of the most senior executives at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, who report directly to CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg. Hired at the company in 2006, he is known as the engineer who developed the Facebook News Feed. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bosworth's salary in 2023 was just under $1 million but — like most Meta executives — he received close to $20 million in Meta stock. Sankar, the chief technology officer for Palantir was, according to his bio with the company, the firm's thirteenth employee. He sold Palantir shares worth $367 million in 2024. McGrew, who advises Thinking Machines Lab, is an alumni of Palantir and OpenAI. According to his LinkedIn, while working as a chief research officer at OpenAI, he led efforts to 'build the world's most powerful AI models and then let the world use them through ChatGPT and the API.' Weil's resume includes work at several major tech companies like Microsoft, Twitter, Instagram, Meta, Strava, Planet Labs, and Cisco. According to SEC filings, he cashed out shares in Twitter and PlanetLabs worth at least $15 million in 2014 and 2015, and his current role at OpenAI includes stock options in the company that, should it turn public, could be worth several hundred million dollars. The program follows Army Chief of Staff Gen. George's announcement of the Army Transformation Initiative and his Transforming in Contact effort which has smaller prototype units testing new tactics and tech like unmanned aerial systems and electronic warfare jammers in realistic combat training scenarios. For instance, the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team is testing new platoons that specialize in specific threats like anti-tank systems, first-person viewer attack, FPV, drones or sensing enemy drones. 'Their swearing-in is just the start of a bigger mission to inspire more tech pros to serve without leaving their careers, showing the next generation how to make a difference in uniform,' the Army said in a release. A Marine Corps reply-all email apocalypse has an incredible real-life ending Army shuts down its sole active-duty information operations command Army plans to close more than 20 base museums in major reduction Former Green Beret nominated to top Pentagon position to oversee special ops The Navy's new recruiting commercial puts the 'dirt wars' in the past
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta Shares Usage Insights in FTC Trial
This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. Meta's ongoing court battle against the FTC, which could result in Meta being forced to sell Instagram and WhatsApp due to anti-competitive concerns, has seen the company reveal a range of insights, as part of its broader effort to highlight that it doesn't hold a monopoly share of the digital ads market, and that there are, in fact, significant competitors challenging Meta's perceived dominance in this space. And while a lot of this is circumstantial, and not particularly illustrative in a general sense, there are some interesting data notes that have been presented in the trial which could give advertisers some more perspective on key social media usage trends, and better inform their strategies. Here's an overview of some of the graphs and stats that have been presented in the case. First off, if you were still unclear, video is the focus on Facebook: As you can see, more and more people are spending more and more time watching video on Facebook. And Reels specifically have been the big winner over time: As shown here, general Facebook News Feed engagement has dipped, and Facebook Stories have never really caught on, but Reels continues to rise, as Meta pushes more and more of them in front of its audience. Which is probably no big surprise. Meta has credited its shift to an algorithm-defined feed of recommended Reels for increasing engagement on both Facebook and IG, and as a general user, you've no doubt become accustomed to the constant stream of videos in each app. But this is also worth noting from a usage trends perspective, and understanding what people come to Facebook and Instagram for these days. In its opening statement, Meta also noted that 63x more messages are sent in its apps every day, versus public posts, further reiterating the broader shift towards video for entertainment, and messaging for connection. Public posting is simply not a major element of Facebook or IG anymore. So what does that mean for marketers? Well, if people are being entertained in these apps, then getting your ads in front of them is still likely to be just as effective as it was when the focus was on friend sharing. But it is worth noting that real engagement happens in DMs, and as such, DMs may now offer a better pathway to facilitating transactional connection. Which is why Meta's Click-to-Message ads have seen a rise in interest of late. It's also why the platforms are making creators a bigger focus, because general users aren't posting anyway. If social apps want to keep people coming back, they need to focus on what incentivizes creators to post, in order to keep their content streams flowing. In terms of what content specifically, video is clearly where it's at, and if you're not creating video content, you should definitely be considering it. Meta also shared insights into which apps benefited most when TikTok was temporarily banned in the U.S. So if TikTok is eventually kicked out of America, due to the 'Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,' you can likely expect Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to scoop up most of that traffic. Meta's also noted the increasing similarity between apps, with every platform copycatting each other. Again, no surprises here, but it is interesting to note the gradual convergence of features, and the lack of differentiation between platforms as a result. These are just some of the revelations from the Meta FTC trial, providing a rare glimpse into the actual working data from inside Meta HQ. If you were looking to get a better understanding of broader social media trends, these will do it. Recommended Reading Meta Outlines Facebook, Instagram and Threads Ad Updates at NewFronts 2025 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
