President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he is appointing Greek-American Michael Kratsios, a veteran from his first administration, to work on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.
He will be the next Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Science Advisor to the President, a Cabinet-level position.
“Together, we will unleash scientific breakthroughs, ensure America’s technological dominance, and usher in a Golden Age of American Innovation!” Trump wrote in a statement accompanying the appointments.
Kratsios will advise “AI and Crypto Czar” David Sacks as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He previously served as Trump’s chief technology officer and oversaw tech policy on the transition team, together with Gail Slater, who will lead the antitrust division at the Department of Justice. Before that, Kratsios served as CEO of the company Scale AI.
Michael Kratsios and the science and technology agreement with Greece
The Greek-American scientist, who accompanied former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on his visit to Greece in 2020, was instrumental in the signing of a ground-breaking science and technology agreement between the two nations.
Kratsios worked tirelessly with his Greek counterparts to finalize the agreement, signed by Pompeo and Greece’s Minister of Development and Investments at the time Adonis Georgiadis in Thessaloniki.
He joined the Trump administration in early 2017 as a technology adviser to the President, being confirmed as Chief Technology Officer in August 2019.
At his confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Commerce Committee, he paid tribute to his Greek roots, which instilled in him an enduring optimism for a better tomorrow.
“My mother and my grandfather came to the United States from their native Greece in search of a more prosperous future. They instilled in me that enduring optimism for a better tomorrow. And I believe that embracing technological innovation, building new technologies in America and shaping those technologies with American values will lead us to that stronger future,” he stated in his opening remarks.
Kratsios’ Greek roots and his career at the White House
Kratsios’ family is from Volissos, Chios, and the city of Kastoria, both in Greece. He graduated from Richland Northeast High School in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2004. He then studied at Princeton University and graduated with a B.A. in politics and a certificate in Hellenic studies in 2008.
Kratsios completed a 125-page long senior thesis, titled “Economics and Voting in the Third Hellenic Republic: An Aggregate and Individual-Level Analysis of the Greek Electorate, 1985-2007,” under the supervision of Markus Prior.
At the White House, Kratsios advocated for the promotion of emerging technologies in the United States. Under his leadership, the White House hosted the American Leadership in Emerging Technology Summit during the Administration’s Technology Week in June 2017, kicking off a multi-year effort to prioritize domains in which the United States must ensure technological preeminence to maintain a strong economy and safeguard national security.
Kratsios led administration efforts on artificial intelligence and quantum information science. He is the architect of the American AI Initiative, the national strategy for promoting American leadership in AI.
He also oversaw the implementation of the bipartisan National Quantum Initiative Act, including the establishment of a new National Quantum Coordination Office in the White House.
In August 2020, Kratsios announced a billion-dollar investment in research institutes to advance AI and quantum R&D in the United States. He was responsible for developing a first-of-its-kind set of regulatory principles to govern AI development in the private sector.
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