Talent is core to U.S. competitiveness in artificial intelligence, and international graduate students are a large source of AI talent for the United States. Graduate student retention has been a historical U.S. strength, but that strength is endangered by recent trends, finds a new CSET report.

The Forbes AI 50 list “shows that foreign talent is critical to AI innovation—and that for now, the United States can still attract talent from around the world,” write CSET’s Remco Zwetsloot, Tina Huang and Zachary Arnold.

Green card limits haven’t budged in decades, while new policies make it harder, costlier, and more uncertain for the world’s talent to come to the United States.

Tarun Chhabra, Senior Fellow at CSET, spoke with Axios regarding the motivation behind China's technological drive. "[T]he Chinese Communist Party's whole technology worldview is driven...by the imperative on consolidation social control...," said Chhabra.

CSET Nonresident Research Fellow Jeff Ding launched his new podcast, ChinaAI Pod, with an inaugural episode featuring CSET Research Fellow Remco Zwetsloot. “The key thing that draws talent to and keeps talent in the U.S.,” said Zwetsloot, “is the robustness of its AI ecosystem.”

As the artificial intelligence field becomes more developed globally, restrictive immigration policies threaten America’s ability to recruit and retain foreign AI talent, according to a new CSET report.