Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist, has been appointed as a senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence (AI) at the White House. The appointment was confirmed by the designated US President Donald Trump over the weekend.
Krishnan will help shape and coordinate AI policy across the government, including working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Trump wrote in a post on the social network X.
As a Senior Policy Advisor for AI in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Krishnan will work closely with David O. Sacks, former Chief Operating Officer at PayPal. Sacks was appointed as Trump’s envoy for AI and cryptocurrencies in early December.
“I am honored to serve our country and work closely with David Sacks to ensure continued American leadership in AI,” Krishnan also wrote on X. “Thank you, Donald Trump, for this opportunity.”
Krishnan, born in India with Tamil roots, has previously led product teams at Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook, and Snap. He and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, gained additional recognition in 2021 as podcast hosts. Krishnan was most recently a General Partner at the American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) before leaving the company at the end of November. He is known to have a close relationship with US billionaire Elon Musk, with whom he worked after Musk’s acquisition of the short messaging service Twitter, now known as X.
In a New York Times opinion article, Krishnan discussed current AI trends. He noted that major internet sites are resisting AI models by “raising the prices for the use of their data,” akin to “pulling up the drawbridge of the internet.” He advocated for “a fundamentally different mechanism for exchanging value between websites and AI assistants.”
“As a technologist, I hope that the answers lie more in code than with lawyers, and that we see creative technological solutions that help keep the internet open,” Krishnan stated. He is also a strong proponent of decentralization in technology, describing it as a mechanism to empower users and move away from the control of centralized platforms.
Krishnan’s appointment as a senior AI advisor signals a shift in US tech policy under Trump, according to the tech magazine CIO. “With his focus on AI ethics, decentralization, and user rights, Krishnan’s influence could not only impact government frameworks but also how companies develop their AI strategies in a competitive, rapidly changing market.”