Xbox’s CEO gets a post in the US government after laying off thousands of people at her company

The United States Federal Reserve has decided to create a new task force led by people from the private sector. Its purpose will be to serve as advisers on the government’s economic and social policies, given their proven experience in business. Among the people chosen to be part of this new branch of government is Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, to help improve jobs and productivity and address the challenges of AI and the impact it will have on the workplace.

A CEO with questionable ideas

This is surprising because Asha Sharma is responsible for Xbox laying off 3,200 people over the next 12 months. Restructuring its main studios, making changes that the studios themselves don’t understand and that they believe could lead to productivity problems, this whole move doesn’t seem to make any sense. Not when Sharma doesn’t seem to be managing the company particularly well.

Xbox Download

Sharma’s task force will be specifically in charge of “assessing the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, to inform the Federal Reserve’s policy decisions”. So it seems she has been brought in for her background in AI and for her intention to steer Xbox toward it more than for the restructuring itself. And in fact, she won’t be the only one. Alongside her will be Charles I. Jones, an economist at Stanford University who works with the AI company Anthropic, and Marc Andreessen, of Andreessen Horowitz.

As baffling as it is, it’s just another move by the Trump administration to encourage AI and benefit companies he has a vested interest in. And while Xbox’s future is still up in the air, Asha Sharma’s seems increasingly secure.