Sriram Krishnan named Trump’s top policy adviser at AI

Incoming President Donald Trump has confirmed reports that Sriram Krishnan, until recently a senior partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), will serve as a senior adviser on AI policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Trump said in a words that Krishnan “will help develop and coordinate AI policies across the government, and work with the president’s advisory board on science and technology.” And in a post at X, Krishnan said he will work closely with former PayPal COO David Sacks, who was recently named Trump’s crypto and AI ‘czar.’

“I am honored to serve our country and ensure that American leadership continues in AI,” Krishnan wrote. “Thank you, Donald Trump, for this opportunity.”

Krishnan, an entrepreneur and VC, has led sales teams at Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo! (Disclosure: TechCrunch’s parent company), Facebook, and Snap. He and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, also became famous in 2021 as the hosts of the podcast “The Aarthi and Sriram Show” (then called “Good Time Show”).

Krishnan has a close relationship with billionaire Elon Musk, with whom he worked to rebuild Twitter (now X) following Musk’s acquisition of the company in 2022. Musk leads the team Department of Public Worksa group of policies to promote government reform and reduce government spending.

Some important announcements today from President Trump on his Tech Team! I look forward to working with:
– Michael Kratsios – Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and Assistant to the President for Science and Technology.
– Dr. Lynne… https://t.co/zai4a61VVC

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) December 22, 2024

Krishnan was named a general partner at a16z in February 2021, and in 2023, he was appointed to lead the London office, its first non-US location. He left at the end of November.

Krishnan shared his few thoughts on the latest trends in AI in thoughts last year in the New York Times. He called for a “very different way” for websites to “exchange” value with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI-powered chatbots.

“The big websites are fighting AI models with the same internet and raising the security bar,” he said, referring to user protests on Reddit and Stack Exchange are those platforms’ data to give consent programs. “Some experts in the industry believe that the answers are in the lawsuits and the old sites make a deal. As a technologist, my hope is that the answers are in the code and not in the lawyers and that we are seeing technical ways to help keep the Internet open.”