New research finds international students are a crucial link in America’s efforts to lead the world in artificial intelligence. Foreign nationals studying at U.S. universities have become a key source of researchers and entrepreneurial talent in AI.
International Students As Entrepreneurs
“Forty-two percent (18 of 43) of the top U.S.-based AI companies had a founder who came to America as an international student,” according to a new National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis. “Seventy-seven percent of the leading U.S.-based AI companies were founded or cofounded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.”
The research, which I authored, was conducted through interviews and gathering information on the 43 U.S. companies on Forbes AI 50, a list of the top startup companies “developing the most promising business applications of artificial intelligence—companies with compelling visions and the resources and technical wherewithal to achieve them.” A July 2022 NFAP study found immigrant entrepreneurs had started more than half of U.S. billion-dollar companies and included several AI companies.
In 2016, two former international students from France founded FarmWise, which employs AI for precision weeding on farms. Sébastien Boyer earned a pair of master’s degrees from MIT. Thomas Palomares received an M.S. in management science and engineering at 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 a board member of Iterative Health. Khosla leads the machine learning, product management and software engineering teams. Iterative Health uses AI to improve the accuracy of colorectal cancer screenings, according to the company, and, more generally, for 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 CTO, Anastasis Germanidis, born in Greece, attended Wesleyan University and NYU. Alejandro Matamala-Ortiz and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela also attended NYU. Valenzuela and Matamala-Ortiz immigrated to the United States from Chile. Runway is valued at $1.5 billion after its latest round of funding, reports Reuters.
Three of the four founders of Moveworks were international students at U.S. universities. Moveworks uses AI to supply information technology support to companies. Vice President of Product Varun Singh, born in India, earned a master’s degree from UCLA and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Vice President of Machine Learning Jiang Chen, born in China, earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale. Moveworks CTO Vaibhav Nivargi, who immigrated to the U.S. from India, received 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 selected AI-related fields are international students,” according to the NFAP analysis. “The difficulty in gaining H-1B status and later permanent residence in the United States often leads to international students at American universities pursuing careers in other countries. Experts consider retaining international students in the United States after graduation essential to U.S. 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. Individuals who become researchers and entrepreneurs in AI have also earned degrees in other fields. International students account for 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 from abroad,” according to the Final Report of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence released in 2021.
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