International students outnumber homegrown talent 2:1 among newly graduated AI experts, driving American leadership in the critical and increasingly crowded field, Axios’ Kaveh Waddell reports.
Why it matters: Experts worry that U.S. hostility to immigration is choking this vital pipeline, potentially handing an advantage to competitors like China.
The big picture: Bright minds are the primary fuel for AI advances. …
- A landmark new report on AI talent argues that “any short-term increase in other states’ relative attractiveness — even if counteracted after the fact — can have long-term and potentially irreversible consequences.”
Driving the news: In the new report, shared first with Axios, Remco Zwetsloot of the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown analyzes the detailed education and work histories of thousands of recent AI graduates in the U.S.
- Zwetsloot and his co-authors find that 80% of international students stay in the U.S. after graduation, a proportion that’s stayed steady for years. But several looming changes threaten this trend.
- Professional opportunities, immigration rules and personal considerations drive international students’ decisions to stay or return after school — and immigration is only getting more restricted. …
What’s next: The White House has proposed reallocating the number of visas to accommodate more high-skilled immigrants. But Zwetsloot says that’s not enough.
- “Ultimately, increasing numerical caps will do a lot more for U.S. retention of the best and brightest than tweaking the allocation system for an insufficient number of slots,” he says.
Read the full article at Axios.