No Priors Ep. 125 | With Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI Sriram Krishnan

Sriram Krishnan was never interested in policy. But after seeing a gap in AI knowledge at senior levels of government, he decided to lend his expertise to the tech-friendly Trump administration. Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI Sriram Krishnan joins Elad Gil and Sarah Guo to talk about America’s AI Action Plan, a recent executive order that outlines how America can win the AI race and maintain its AI supremacy. Sriram discusses why winning the AI race is important and what that looks like, as well as the core goals of the Action Plan that he helped to author. Together, they explore how AI is the latest iteration of American cultural exportation and soft power, the bottlenecks in upgrading America’s energy infrastructure, and the importance of America owning the “full stack” from GPUs and models to agents and software. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @skrishnan47 | @sriramk Chapters: 00:00 – Sriram Krishnan Introduction 01:00 – Sriram’s Role in Government 03:43 – Impetus for the America AI Action Plan 06:14 – What Winning the AI Race Looks Like 10:36 – Algorithms and Cultural Bias 12:26 – Main Tenets of the America AI Action Plan 19:13 – Infrastructure and Energy Needs for AI 22:56 – Manufacturing, Supply Chains, and AI 24:52 – Ensuring American Dominance in Robotics 26:30 – Translating Policy to Industry and the Economy 29:30 – Should the US Be a Technocracy? 32:33 – Understanding the Argument Against Open Source Models 36:07 – Conclusion

Sarah GuohostElad GilhostSriram Krishnanguest

Jul 31, 202536mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: July 31, 2025
Duration: 36m
Channel: No Priors
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Sriram Krishnan was never interested in policy. But after seeing a gap in AI knowledge at senior levels of government, he decided to lend his expertise to the tech-friendly Trump administration. Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI Sriram Krishnan joins Elad Gil and Sarah Guo to talk about America’s AI Action Plan, a recent executive order that outlines how America can win the AI race and maintain its AI supremacy. Sriram discusses why winning the AI race is important and what that looks like, as well as the core goals of the Action Plan that he helped to author. Together, they explore how AI is the latest iteration of American cultural exportation and soft power, the bottlenecks in upgrading America’s energy infrastructure, and the importance of America owning the “full stack” from GPUs and models to agents and software. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @skrishnan47 | @sriramk Chapters: 00:00 – Sriram Krishnan Introduction 01:00 – Sriram’s Role in Government 03:43 – Impetus for the America AI Action Plan 06:14 – What Winning the AI Race Looks Like 10:36 – Algorithms and Cultural Bias 12:26 – Main Tenets of the America AI Action Plan 19:13 – Infrastructure and Energy Needs for AI 22:56 – Manufacturing, Supply Chains, and AI 24:52 – Ensuring American Dominance in Robotics 26:30 – Translating Policy to Industry and the Economy 29:30 – Should the US Be a Technocracy? 32:33 – Understanding the Argument Against Open Source Models 36:07 – Conclusion

SPEAKERS

Sarah Guo
host
Elad Gil
host
Sriram Krishnan
guest
Narrator
other

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of No Priors, featuring Sarah Guo and Elad Gil, No Priors Ep. 125 | With Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI Sriram Krishnan explores white House AI Advisor Outlines America’s Strategy To Win Global Race Senior White House policy advisor on AI, Sriram Krishnan, outlines the new American AI Action Plan, positioning AI as a decisive economic, cultural, and military battleground—especially versus China. He argues the U.S. lead is small and fragile, using China’s DeepSeek as a wake-up call that triggered a more aggressive national AI strategy. The plan focuses on three pillars: building massive AI infrastructure and energy capacity, removing regulatory obstacles to innovation (especially for open source), and exporting an "American AI stack"—from GPUs to models—to allies worldwide. Krishnan also emphasizes fighting ideological bias in government AI systems and embedding technologists at the center of U.S. policymaking to move fast and compete effectively.

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