Meet Trump's AI advisor pick: Chennai-born techie and Musk's aide Sriram Krishnan

SAN FRANCISCO/CHENNAI: US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Indian American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author Sriram Krishnan as Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence.

“Sriram Krishnan will serve as the Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,” Trump said on Sunday, announcing several appointments on artificial intelligence or AI.

Krishnan, who did B.Tech in Information Technology at SRM Valliammai Engineering College (under Anna University) in Kattankulathur, Chengalpattu, began his career at Microsoft, where he contributed to the development of Windows Azure, a cloud computing platform.

Joining Facebook in 2013, Krishnan played a significant role in scaling the company’s mobile app download ads business, before moving to Twitter (now X) where he collaborated with Elon Musk on restructuring the platform.

An investor and advisor to Bengaluru-based Indian fintech company, Cred, Krishnan also co-hosts a top tech podcast – The Aarthi and Sriram Show – with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy.

Krishnan, who also led product teams at Yahoo! and Snap, will now work along with David O. Sacks who will be the White House AI & Crypto Czar.

“Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in AI and help shape and coordinate AI 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,” Trump said.

Krishnan said, “I'm honoured to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI, working closely with David Sacks.”

Krishnan's appointment has been welcomed by the Indian American community. “Extremely delighted,” said Indiaspora's executive director Sanjeev Joshipura.