The Man Leading Trump’s AI Charge Against China

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.2 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At WSJ’s Tech Live, Jessica Mendoza sits down with Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to discuss the pivotal moment in the U.S.-China AI race, how he thinks AI should be regulated, and whether or not the AI boom might be a bubble. Further Listening: - Is the AI Boom… a Bubble? - How a $1.5 Billion Settlement Could Alter the Course of AI - The Nvidia CEO’s Quest to Sell Chips in China Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	China and the U.S. are locked in a race over AI, and President Trump says the U.S. is ahead.
0:11.6	China and other countries are racing to catch up to America having to do with AI, and we're not going to let them do it.
0:19.7	But winning the AI race isn't going to be easy.
0:22.7	The U.S. lags behind China on electricity generation, and earlier this year was shaken by the
0:27.6	advancements of Chinese AI firm Deepseek. Today I'm joined by the man the president has chosen
0:33.0	to lead the government over these hurdles, Michael Kratzios. Michael worked for PayPal founder Peter Thiel and became chief technology officer in Trump's
0:41.3	first administration. He spent four years working at the AI startup, Scale AI. And earlier this
0:47.2	year, he returned to government as the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy,
0:51.7	the agency in charge of the nation's tech strategy.
0:55.5	Michael and I are going to talk about everything from chips to chatbots, and his thoughts on the
1:00.1	role the government should play in AI development and innovation.
1:16.1	From the Wall Street Journal's Tech Live event, welcome to this live taping of The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.
1:19.1	I'm Jessica Mendoza.
1:20.5	Coming up on the show, how the U.S. plans to win the AI race.
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2:06.9	Michael, thank you so much for joining us today.
2:14.4	Thank you so much for having me.
	...

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