Trump AI Advisor Wants 'American AI,' not 'Woke AI' | The Conversation

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sriram Krishnan is a venture capitalist who once served as general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Now, he serves as White House Senior Policy Advisor for AI, where he has helped to develop President Trump’s American AI Action Plan. In a live interview with The Conversation host Dasha Burns at POLITICO’s AI & Tech Summit, Krishnan discussed what it takes for the United States to win the AI race, how the White House wants to keep “wokeness” out of government-funded AI, and how artificial intelligence will be harnessed, regulated, and contested in the years ahead. “We want to make sure that our ecosystem has market share, and if [China’s] Huawei gets market share that means revenue, that means usage, it makes their chips better, it makes them set up to start exporting to other countries,” Krishnan said. Krishnan explains that the era of artificial intelligence is still very new, and while it closely resembles the early days of the internet, the Trump White House is working to make sure everyday Americans can make good use of the technology. “What I think about is how do we get more of what people here are seeing, which is AI making your lives better, making your work better and figuring out how to get us to economic prosperity.” Plus, Playbook managing editor and in-house UK expert Jack Blanchard breaks down the significance of Trump’s unprecedented second state visit to Great Britain and the president’s close relationship with prime minister Keir Starmer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The next generation of U.S. financial infrastructure is here.
0:03.6	Open source blockchain-based technology empowers transparency and consumer choice.
0:08.3	As Congress crafts digital asset laws, it's critical to preserve protections for developers
0:12.9	building innovative technology, but regulatory uncertainty is driving talent overseas.
0:18.0	America's share of open source developers has dropped over 50% since 2015.
0:22.9	The future of America's financial infrastructure depends on protecting those building it.
0:27.4	Learn more at Solana Policy Institute.org.
0:34.5	Hello, hello, and welcome to The Conversation. I'm Dasha Burns, White House Bureau Chief for Politico.
0:40.6	And every week on this show, I invite some of the most compelling and sometimes unexpected power players in Washington and beyond in for a chat to find out how they're navigating and shaping this incredible era of American politics.
0:56.4	And wow, it's been a week.
0:59.3	The U.S. is still absorbed by the death of Charlie Kirk, and President Trump enjoys his
1:04.7	second state visit to the U.K. Israel launched a full offensive on Gaza City, and the Fed decided to cut interest rates for the first time this year.
1:14.7	In the midst of all of that, we here at Politico hosted an AI and Tech Summit, and I recorded a special live taping of this week's show at that event.
1:24.9	I was joined by senior policy advisor for AI Sri Ram Krishna.
1:29.3	Krishna is a venture capitalist who once served as general partner at Andresen Horowitz.
1:34.1	We discussed everything from what it takes to win the AI race, what that even means,
1:39.2	and how AI will be harnessed, regulated, and contested in the years ahead.
1:43.8	Now, this administration is having a
1:45.5	lot of impact across different policy areas, but AI is one of those mysterious, futuristic things
1:51.8	that's actually in the not so distant future going to have a big impact on all of us. And this
1:56.9	administration is being pretty aggressive about its policy measures here. So I've been wanting to talk to someone who's working on this issue for a very long time.
2:04.8	Here's my conversation with Sri Ram Krishna.
	...

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