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President Trump has said he wants the U.S. to be a world leader in artificial intelligence, but other parts of the president's agenda might interfere with that. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram reports.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: President Trump says he wants the U.S. to dominate the AI race, especially when it comes to beating competitors like China. Here he is speaking about his administration's plan on AI earlier this summer.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Because we will not allow any foreign nation to beat us, our children will not live on a planet controlled by the algorithms of the adversaries advancing values.
SHIVARAM: But there are some people in the AI industry who are concerned about something missing from Trump's AI plan. There's no mention of support for immigrant workers and international students who have historically been the backbone of AI development in the U.S., and the administration's immigration policies are making it harder for those groups to come to the U.S. to work and study.
USAMA FAYYAD: Many companies recognize that they actually need a lot of foreign talent to make stuff work. There's no shame in that. That's how it's been since World War II, and maybe slightly before that.
SHIVARAM: That's Usama Fayyad, a vice provost at Northeastern University in Boston. He worked in the AI field for three decades. He says that immigration restrictions have deep consequences to AI innovation when it comes to hiring and retaining talent and keeping companies based in the U.S.
FAYYAD: Without the talent, you're not going to get anywhere, right? Do you wind up staffing your positions with second- and third-rate talent? What happens to you as an enterprise when you get there? Well, you become less efficient, less competitive, less innovative.
SHIVARAM: The administration's recent cuts to research grants and funding to places like the National Science Foundation will also have a negative impact, says Nicol Turner Lee. She runs the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.
NICOL TURNER LEE: I worry that the more that we do on this aim, we're actually just feeding China's ability to recruit and retain many of those students, including those from the United States who feel, you know, sort of disarmed because they're not able to have the research money that they need to be able to do the work that they want to do.
SHIVARAM: Supporters of the president's agenda have argued that the U.S. shouldn't have to rely on foreign talent to build up AI technology, and the administration has argued some foreign students, like those coming from China, could pose a national security risk. The White House did not respond to requests for comment for this story, but Trump himself said during the 2024 election that he wanted to help foreign students stay in America after their education. Here's Trump speaking to the "All-In" podcast last year, which is hosted by several people in Trump's inner tech circle, some of whom are immigrants. In this episode, tech investor Jason Calacanis is speaking to Trump.
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JASON CALACANIS: Can you please promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America?
TRUMP: I do promise, but I happen to agree. That's why I promise. Otherwise, I wouldn't promise.
SHIVARAM: Trump went on to say that he wants every college graduate to receive a green card with their diploma. But as of now, eight months into his second term, Trump hasn't delivered on that promise. In fact, he's continued to make it harder for international students to stay. As of now, they can stay in the country as long as they're enrolled as a student. But the Department of Homeland Security has proposed a new rule that would cap their visas at four years before they need to reapply. There have been some shifts in policy, though, especially as trade negotiations with China evolve. Trump recently announced that he would allow 600,000 Chinese students to obtain visas to study in the U.S. over the next two years.
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TRUMP: I like that their students come here. I like that other countries' students come here. And you know what would happen if they didn't? Our college system would go to hell very quickly.
SHIVARAM: It's a backtrack on what his own State Department was trying to do just a few months ago when it announced it would revoke visas from Chinese students.
Deepa Shivaram, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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