President Donald Trump appointed the first members to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) last week. PCAST was established by an executive order in January to advise the president on “matters involving science, technology, education and technical information.”

The council members are: Marc Andreessen, Sergey Brin, Safra Catz, Michael Dell, Jacob DeWitte, Fred Ehrsam, Larry Ellison, David Friedberg, Jensen Huang, John Martinis, Bob Mumgaard, Lisa Su and Mark Zuckerberg. The council could ultimately consist of up to 24 members.

PCAST is the sole body of advisors from outside of the federal government charged with making science, technology and innovation policy recommendations to the president. While PCAST has no formal decision-making authority, it can influence access and financial considerations.

Tech executives dominate science and technology council

The council includes several multibillionaires, including Larry Ellison of Oracle, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jensen Huang of NVIDIA, Lisa Su of AMD, Sergey Brin of Google and Michael Dell of Dell. John Martinis of the University of California, Santa Barbara, is currently the only academic.

In comparison, 20 of the 30 PCAST members under the Biden administration were members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and 14 were women, compared to only two women on Trump’s council.

Jennifer Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the council is rife with conflicts of interest. Google, Meta and NVIDIA each donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. “What they lack in scientific credentials, they make up for in conflicts of interest. Nearly every one of these people—among them some of the world’s richest—has a direct financial stake in the policies that PCAST is supposed to advise the federal government on,” Jones told C&EN in an emailed statement.

Several members of PCAST lead companies that are directly regulated by the federal government and could benefit financially from the recommendations the council makes. Google is defending itself in multiple federal competition law cases and Meta is facing ongoing regulatory proceedings. These companies now hold direct channels to shape the rules governing their own markets.

What this could mean for American science

This could have a direct effect on science in America. “PCASTs typically reflect the priorities of the president who appoints them,” Deborah Stine, who staffed the committee under former President Barack Obama, told Science. “That can translate into direct access and influence at the highest levels of decision-making.”

The new council is dominated by AI, quantum and semiconductor executives, meaning those recommendations are likely to steer federal priorities and funding toward those fields. With the administration already cutting funding to science agencies, researchers are navigating a difficult environment. PCAST recommendations could provide political cover for further executive action in that direction.

One of PCAST’s priorities is streamlining “bureaucratic barriers,” which the administration argues hinder technological speed. Deregulation could speed up some applied research, especially in AI, but could also weaken oversight structures that protect independent research, such as grant review processes and peer review standards.

PCAST’s first recommendations are due within 90 days and will arrive as Congress weighs competing AI legislation and the Commerce Department finalizes new semiconductor export rules.