Ro Khanna defends Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan's appointment as Trump's AI advisor; calls it 'American exceptionalism'

Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna criticised those targeting Indian-born Sriram Krishnan, who was recently chosen as a senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence by President-elect Donald Trump, over his Indian origin.

Khanna emphasised that the ability of the United States to attract talent from around the world shows America's "exceptionalism" which puts it ahead of other countries like China.

Following a post by an X user, who wrote, "Did any of yall vote for this Indian to run America," Khanna on X wrote, "You fools criticizing @sriramk as Indian born criticize Musk as South African born or Jensen as Taiwanese born."


"It is great that talent around the world wants to come here, not to China, and that Sriram can rise to the highest levels. It's called American exceptionalism," the post added.

https://x.com/RoKhanna/status/1871754547221475369

US President-elect Donald Trump nominated Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Sharing a post on the Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, "Sriram Krishnan will serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy."

"Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in AI, and help shape and coordinate A.l. policy across Government, including working with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure," he said.

Krishnan, 41, acknowledged the offer and expressed his gratitude for the opportunity by saying, "I'm honoured to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI working closely with @DavidSacks. Thank you @realDonaldTrump for this opportunity."

Krishnan till recently was a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and a personal investor in over two dozen companies including SpaceX, Figma and Scale.ai. He previously led organisations at Meta, Twitter/X and Microsoft.

He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology from SRM Engineering College, Anna University.