If you're going to be leading a commission that is steering the direction of government AI and making recommendations for how we should promote this sector and scientific exploration in this area, you really shouldn't also be dipping your hand in the pot and helping yourself to AI investments.Walter ShaubSenior Ethics Fellow, Project on Government Oversight His credentials, however, were impeccable given his deep experience in Silicon Valley, his experience advising the Defense Department, and a vast personal fortune estimated at about $20 billion.The commission was, by design, an outside advisory group of industry participants, and its other members included well-known tech executives including Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy and Microsoft Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Eric Horvitz, among others.Venture capital firms financed, in part, by Schmidt and his private family foundation also made dozens of additional investments in AI companies during Schmidt's tenure, giving Schmidt an economic stake in the industry even as he developed new regulations and encouraged taxpayer financing for it."The ethics enforcement process in the executive branch is broken, it does not work," said Craig Holman, a lobbyist on ethics, lobbying and campaign finance for Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy organization."When Congress created the Office of Government Ethics to oversee the executive branch, you know, they didn't really want a strong ethics cop, they just wanted an advisory commission.""