Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Tapped for Federal Reserve Taskforce
The Federal Reserve has enlisted the expertise of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to help assess the economic impact of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), as part of its ‘Productivity and Jobs’ taskforce.
Sharma, who previously led Microsoft’s Core AI group before taking the reins at Xbox earlier this year, joins a distinguished group of experts, including Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Charles I. Jones, professor of economics at Stanford University, who is currently on leave at Anthropic.
Notably, Sharma’s appointment to the taskforce comes just days after she initiated a restructuring of the Xbox business, which included the layoff of 1,600 staff members on Monday, with another 1,600 expected to be cut throughout the current financial year. Four Xbox studios have already parted ways with Microsoft, and several high-profile projects have been canceled.
The impact of AI on the tech industry, particularly in terms of job displacement, is a well-documented phenomenon. Microsoft, the parent company of Xbox, has itself invested heavily in AI research and development. However, in a surprising move, Sharma’s first major decision as Xbox CEO was to discontinue Microsoft’s AI tool, Copilot for gaming. Despite this, she has expressed her commitment to AI, highlighting its potential benefits in enhancing video game graphics through neural rendering.
Sharma’s vision for Xbox’s future appears to focus on increased profitability through a concentration on the company’s most successful franchises, such as Halo, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls. The fate of smaller Xbox franchises remains uncertain at this time.
In a statement, Sharma emphasized the need for simplification within the company, citing the need to reduce management layers, streamline processes, and foster a more direct and accountable approach to decision-making. She outlined plans to flatten the organization, reduce management layers to a maximum of five, and implement a cleaner code base, shared services, and a 50% reduction in vendor spend.
Chairman Kevin Warsh of the Federal Reserve expressed the organization’s commitment to price stability and maximum employment, stating, ‘The U.S. economy has changed significantly over the last generation, and never more so than right now. Each task force will carefully consider whether policymakers’ means and methods, analytical tools, and policy approaches can be improved upon.’
The Federal Reserve’s resolve to pursue its mandate with rigor is unwavering, as it seeks to ensure the institution is best positioned to achieve its objectives in this critical period.
