Washington, 7 June

Chennai-born Sriram Krishnan, the architect of US President Donald Trump’s policies on artificial intelligence, is stepping down from his role as senior policy adviser at the White House.

The 42-year-old, who has had stints at Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, made the announcement of leaving his role as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence in a post on X on Saturday.

“I'll be leaving my role at the White House at the end of this month. After a break, I’ll be working on helping tackle some of the large challenges facing America on AI (more on that later),” Krishnan said.

Krishnan was an architect of the Trump administration’s “AI Action Plan”, which provided a blueprint to roll back regulation of the emerging technology and promote the build-out of data centres across the country.

He was also among Trump’s tech advisers who crafted an executive order limiting states’ ability to regulate AI.

“It is hard to express how big a privilege it has been to serve the American people and how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to do so. First and foremost, it has been an honour to serve under President Donald Trump. Without his leadership, we would not be leading in the AI race,” Krishnan said.

Krishnan’s close ally at the White House, David Sacks, said it has been one of the great privileges to work so closely with him over the past 18 months.

“Your skills are genuinely unique: a rare combination of deep technical fluency in AI, sharp policy instincts, exceptional strategic thinking, and true diplomatic talent,” Sacks, Co-Chair, President’s Council of Advisers on Science & Technology, said on X.

Krishnan listed the American AI Action Plan, the National AI Policy Framework, and forging AI acceleration partnerships among his achievements during his tenure at the White House.

“The past 18 months have given me a front row seat to this critical moment on AI facing America and our allies. Whether it is energy, data centres or a clear path for Americans to experience the benefits of AI, there are many tough issues we all need to navigate together,” Krishnan said.

“I plan on building institutions that help tackle some of those challenges for America and its allies,” he said.

Before joining the government, Krishnan was a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and worked at Facebook and Twitter. He is a close ally of Elon Musk and advised him on his 2022 takeover of Twitter, which was renamed X.

Born in Chennai in 1984, Krishnan earned his Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology from SRM University in 2005, before moving to the US two years later to join Microsoft.

Krishnan’s appointment to the White House drew sharp criticism from Trump’s right-wing influencers, such as Laura Loomer.

Loomer said Krishnan had supported removing some caps on green cards and easing the ability of skilled foreign workers to come to the United States, which went against Trump’s agenda of “Making America Great Again”.