I do not hate the idea of a public counterweight to big tech, nor the sort of gimmicky presentation.

I guess it isn’t a gimmick if it’s the first time, it’s just novel.

I do have serious concerns about the public counterweight to big tech being utilized for nefarious purposes by the government, but federal investment has historically driven huge leaps in technologies. The landscape is extremely different now with private tech ostensibly representing the bleeding edge, but I think access to a hub for publicly funded educational institutions would be enough of an incubator to spur real innovation.

This field is not going anywhere, and I think investing in it now is extremely wise.

We already collaborate extensively with the Israelis, I’m sure their inclusion is as much to secure more science-spending adverse representatives as it is to offload some of the cost burden. Not to mention the obvious intelligence implications.