A view of the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. New … (+)
New research reveals that international students are a crucial link in the United States’ efforts to become the world leader in artificial intelligence. Foreign nationals studying at U.S. universities have become a key source of researchers and entrepreneurial talent in the field of AI.
International students as entrepreneurs
“Forty-two percent (18 of 43) of the largest U.S.-based AI companies had a founder who came to the United States as an international student,” according to one study. new analysis from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). “Seventy-seven percent of top U.S.-based AI companies were founded or co-founded by immigrants or children of immigrants. »
The research, which I authored, was conducted through interviews and collection of information from 43 American companies. Forbes AI 50, a list of the best startups “developing the most promising commercial applications of artificial intelligence – companies with compelling visions and the resources and technical means to realize them.” July 2022 PANF study found that immigrant entrepreneurs started more than half of America’s billion-dollar companies and included several AI companies.
In 2016, two former French international students founded FarmWise, which uses AI for precision weeding on farms. Sébastien Boyer holds two master’s degrees from MIT. Thomas Palomares holds a master’s degree in management science and engineering from Stanford.
Aditya Khosla came to the United States from India as an international student. After graduating from Caltech, he earned a master’s degree from Stanford and a Ph.D. from MIT in computer science. In 2016, Khosla and Andrew Beck founded PathAI, which uses AI to “optimize the analysis of patient tissue samples” and for other clinical and diagnostic purposes. The company has 250 employees.
Khosla remains an advisor at PathAI but is now chief technology officer and board member of Iterative Health. Khosla leads the machine learning, product management, and software engineering teams. Iterative Health is using AI to improve the accuracy of colorectal cancer screenings, according to the company, and, more generally, to gastroenterology“the study of the normal function and diseases of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon and rectum, pancreas, gallbladder, bile ducts, and liver.”
Three immigrants who came to America as international students founded Runway. The company provides AI tools for images and videos. Runway’s technical director, Greek-born Anastasis Germanidis, attended Wesleyan University and NYU. Alejandro Matamala-Ortiz and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela were also in attendance at NYU. Valenzuela and Matamala-Ortiz immigrated to the United States from Chile. Runway is valued at $1.5 billion after its latest funding round, reports Reuters.
Three of Moveworks’ four founders were international students at American universities. Moveworks uses AI to provide IT support to businesses. Vice President of Products Varun Singh, born in India, received a master’s degree from UCLA and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Jiang Chen, vice president of machine learning, born in China, received a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale. Moveworks CTO Vaibhav Nivargi, who immigrated to the United States from India, earned a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford.
International students as a key source of AI talent
“70% of full-time graduate students at U.S. universities in some AI-related fields are international students,” according to the NFAP analysis. “The difficulty in obtaining H-1B status and later permanent residency in the United States often leads international students at American universities to pursue careers in other countries. Experts consider retaining international students in the United States after graduation essential to American leadership in artificial intelligence.”
In computer and information sciences, the most common field for AI researchers, 71% of full-time graduate students at U.S. universities are international students. People who become AI researchers and entrepreneurs have also earned degrees in other fields. International students represent 73% of full-time graduate students in electrical and computer engineering at U.S. universities, 69% in applied mathematics, and 65% in statistics.
“The United States risks losing the global competition for scarce AI expertise if it does not cultivate more potential talent at home and recruit and retain more existing talent abroad,” according to the report. Final report of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence released in 2021.
