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Former head of the NSA joins OpenAI board of directors
(engineering.vanderbilt.edu)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Yeah, there are a ton of security experts. But none of them are the former head of the NSA.
Snowden is not exactly a font of expertise in this area, so I'm not sure that his opinion is particularly relevant. His only actual relevance is that he had access to classified data. He had no role in policy, and never had anything to do with business hiring practices.
That doesn't make the point you think it makes. ๐
Look at it this way. You can get the same expertise, in any branch you'd care to name, elsewhere. Hiring, security etc.
What this guy is uniquely positioned to do, what you can't get from anybody else, is oversight of integration with NSA surveillance. And that's where the smell comes from.
Well, I'd contend that the same expertise isn't just readily available. Yes, he's uniquely positioned for connection to the surveillance apparatus, but the reputation of being the federal governments head security is also a unique credential.