President-elect Donald Trump recently invited Tesla CEO Elon Musk to Trump Tower for a surprising reason: he wants Musk’s advice. The Trump administration’s new Strategic and Policy Forum will place the SpaceX CEO and other notable tech executives in advisory roles to help mold future policies. The addition of Musk as an advisor is both a smart and surprising choice, as Musk has been very critical of fossil fuel industries and encourages politicians to take climate change seriously – something Trump and many of his cabinet picks refuse to do.

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Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum will draw upon the perspectives of successful US tech businesses to help the president-elect and his team mold future policies. “My Administration is going to work together with the private sector to improve the business climate and make it attractive for firms to create new jobs across the United States from Silicon Valley to the heartland,” Trump said.

Related: Elon Musk is heading to Trump Tower with other tech executives

Musk has been critical of Trump in the past – before the election, he told CNBC, “[Donald Trump] doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.” As a figure in this forum, Musk will have Trump’s ear and can hopefully express his concerns as a clean tech innovator and a citizen of Earth. His role has great potential to plant seeds of logic and reason in the new administration regarding the future of technology and renewable energy.

Among the others in attendance were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, and Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. Here’s to hoping they use their powers for good.

Via Autoblog

Images via Flickr, Wikipedia