Trump AI Advisor Wants 'American AI,' not 'Woke AI' (with Sriram Krishnan)

The Conversation with Dasha Burns

POLITICO

News, Government, Politics

4.0 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode is sponsored by pharma.
0:02.7	Pharma member companies are answering President Trump's call to put America first.
0:07.2	As part of the biopharmaceutical industry's commitment to American patients and workers,
0:12.2	they are making historic investments in U.S.-based manufacturing and infrastructure,
0:16.5	providing financial assistance to millions of patients, and will be launching America'smedicons.com, which will connect patients and businesses with manufacturer direct
0:25.6	purchase programs. Learn more at Americasmedicons.com.
0:34.6	Hello, hello, and welcome to The Conversation. I'm Dasha Burns, White House Bureau Chief for Politico.
0:40.7	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.
0:59.4	The U.S. is still absorbed by the death of Charlie Kirk, and President Trump enjoys his
1:04.8	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.
1:14.8	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.
1:25.0	I was joined by senior policy advisor for AI, Sri Ram Krishnan.
1:29.4	Krishnan 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
1:45.4	a 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
1:57.0	administration has been 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.
2:04.6	Here's my conversation with Sri Ram Krishna.
2:07.6	Sriram Krishna, thank you so much for joining the conversation
	...

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