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Alphabet's Eric Schmidt to lead military innovation board

Schmidt will lead an effort to bring Silicon Valley's practices to the Pentagon.

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt will soon head up an advisory board for the US military. Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed today that Schmidt had agreed to lead the Pentagon's new Defense Innovation Advisory Board. The group is tasked with leveraging the innovation of Silicon Valley to the US military by bridging the divide between the government and the tech industry. Secretary Carter announced the board during the RSA cybersecurity conference that's taking place in San Francisco this week, where he also plans to meet with the Schmidt.

According to the Pentagon, Carter and Schmidt will choose up to 12 members for the panel, which will be composed of people who've led both private and public companies and have a knack for picking out new tech. What's more, the group's experience with prototyping, product development, analysis, mobile apps and the cloud will be used to help develop new solutions for the military. Further details are scarce for now, but once the selection process begins, we'll be interested to see if big names from other tech outfits make the cut. This isn't the first time the government has reached out to Silicon Valley recently either. Last spring, the Department of Defense announced a new cyberunit would set up shop there to foster collaboration when it comes to matters of cybersecurity.