By Heather Somerville

The nerd brigade is reporting for duty.

They probably won't win any push-up contests and might not be sharpshooters. Yet for part of the year, a set of brainy Silicon Valley executives will trade their corporate-branded vests for U.S. Army Reserve uniforms because they know a heckuva lot about AI.

The chief technology officers from Palantir and Meta Platforms -- Shyam Sankar and Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, respectively -- will join Kevin Weil and Bob McGrew of OpenAI pedigree to make up the inaugural cohort of a new Army innovation corps.

Their mission: swap C-suites for bases and bring some badly needed tech upgrades to the Army.

"It's possible I watched too much 'Top Gun,'" said Bosworth, 43. Standing more than 6-feet-2, he was too tall to realize his youthful ambitions of flying an F-16 jet fighter.

He welcomes the new assignment, he said, as a way to finally extend his family's tradition of military service.

Bosworth said Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer at Meta, supported his decision to join the Reserve. "There's a lot of patriotism that has been under the covers that I think is coming to light in the Valley."

The tech recruits will be sworn in as uniformed officers in a public ceremony on Friday, the day before the Army's 250th birthday.

Less than a decade ago, even working on technology that might be used in defense -- never mind suiting up for service -- was anathema in Silicon Valley. The new Reserve program reflects how the relationship between the Pentagon and the tech industry has deepened.

Meta and OpenAI adjusted their policies to work more with the military last year. Recently they each joined with the weapons maker Anduril Industries to develop products for the Pentagon. Palantir has been involved in national-security work for two decades. It has a AI and data project with the Army worth potentially more than $1 billion.

Many in Silicon Valley assert that their cutting-edge know-how can equip the military for a conflict with a tech-powerful adversary like China -- while profiting the tech sector.

For the Army, the deepening ties can help it prepare for the wars of the future. They are expected to be waged, in part, with ground robots and drones, and rely on networks of sensors and artificial intelligence to coordinate it all.

"We need to go faster, and that's exactly what we are doing here," said Gen. Randy George, the Army's chief of staff.

The Army, in a show of its own geekiness, has dubbed the tech-reservist program Detachment 201. The moniker refers to the hypertext transfer protocol status code 201, which indicates the creation of a new resource on a server.

Detachment 201 is the first deployment of tech elites. Brynt Parmeter, the Pentagon's chief talent management officer who has been leading the creation of a tech-reservist program since last year, is pushing for other services in the armed forces to follow the Army.

The tech reservists will serve for around 120 hours a year. Because of their private-sector status, each will carry the rank of lieutenant colonel.

There will be other dispensations for the technology officers. They will have more flexibility than the average reservist to work remotely and asynchronously, and will be spared basic training.

Reservists are deployed based on their skills, so the tech unit's members more than likely won't find themselves in a firefight. "That's not where they would fit," George said. Instead, they will work on projects that, for instance, teach soldiers how to use AI-powered systems or use health data to improve fitness.

Also, the executives will advise the service on acquiring more commercial technology. They will help the Defense Department recruit other high-tech whizzes.

The recruits won't work on projects involving their employers, George said, and will be firewalled from sharing information with their employers or participating in projects that could provide them or their companies with financial gain.

"I have always believed that America is a force for good in the world, and in order for America to accomplish that, we need a strong military," said McGrew, 43. He left OpenAI in November and is taking time to "think deeply" before deciding on a new job.

Palantir's Sankar, 43, who fled violence in Nigeria as a child, was eager to "put the uniform on, put the pebble in my shoe" to pay back the opportunity the U.S. gave him and his family. "If not for the grace of this nation, we'd be dead in a ditch in Lagos," he said.

As part of their commitment, the reservists must complete physical-fitness tests and marksmanship training. "I've been giving them a hard time about that," said George. He has been trying to scare them into thinking the physical tests will be "super hard."

Weil, 42, OpenAI's chief product officer and an ultramarathon runner, professed to be undaunted by the timed 2-mile test. Still, he expects "we're going to get our asses kicked by real soldiers."

Bosworth said he has enhanced his workouts in preparation for the service. He does more push-ups and pulls heavy weights behind him.

Sankar is less confident about the fitness demands. His biggest concern, he said: "Being humiliated in front of Army officers who are way more fit than I am. I may be an expert in tech, but I'm not an expert soldier."

Write to Heather Somerville at heather.somerville@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 13, 2025 05:00 ET (09:00 GMT)

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