AI - Competition for Talent

Politics Matters

Washington DC 14 JAN 2025

Iskander Rehman just published a very well researched and written piece on the global competition for AI talent. It makes a number of important points across a spectrum of issues. I was most struck by the implied need for Trump's America to be a high value proposition.

America needs to be an attractive place for people to want to emigrate. We want newcomers to develop deep bonds so they authentically feel American. From this, loyalty and commitment to America will naturally flow. The reverse is also true. If they feel marginalized, excluded or even hated, they may leave or work against America.

Why has America been attractive in the past?

• America genuinely appeared to abide by the rule of law.

• America had a stable and functional political system, where policy differences were negotiated absent threats and by non violent means. One person one vote - not one $ one vote - was the rule not the exception.

• American society was welcoming to all, including to other than white Christian nationalists.

• American leaders had self control and a noticable commitment to the constitution and national interest.

• If leaders strayed too far from this operating system they were rejected by the people.

Can we honestly say any of this remains true today?

Rehman's article explores the history of those who came here who ended up making incredible contributions to national security. They did so because their home countries had undesirable political regimes. America has never been perfect, but it was better than despotic regimes. He also touches on those who left and the consequences of their departure for the US.

Now, for a second time, America will be run by a lawless criminal gang, using hate, threats, and actual violence to advance “their” people at the expense of all “others”. They don't even hide it. They are PROUD of it. They think it's funny to threaten an unprovoked war of territorial aggression against loyal allies. What do they think China will make of that other than a green light for its imperial expansionism?

In short, America has started down a new road toward becoming all the things it reviled in the past. America has elected corruption to power. It uses threats and intimidation at home and abroad. Anyone who does not think, act and look like the ruling elite is branded an enemy. The list is already long and rapidly growing.

This “new” America was always here. It was just a freak fringe that everyone knew had no place in society. Because of this, everyone, including the freaks, assumed they would never get close to getting the keys to political power. Then along came a game show host con-man at exactly the right time. When failed mainstream politics left a vacuum the fringe happily filled it - empowered by lockdowns and copious time on psychometrically manipulated social media propaganda platforms that turned people against science, law, and democracy.

It turned people against each other. Fellow citizens with equal rights to be heard were now enemies that needed execution for being traitors to the game show host for not agreeing with his many hatreds.

This America hates foreigners. Especially from shit hole (non white) countries. Will foreigners want to come? Even if they don't realize just how much we have changed, once they get a taste of being a black woman or man in America, will they want to stay?

Just look at the H1 visa “debate” - debacle more like. What non white foreigner would look at that and slam their hand on the table and scream I WANT IN!

Rather than being a refuge for the world's most talented people, an anti-democratic America may soon become a place from which the most talented will flee. Hard to see right now given the US hegemony of AI - but give it time. No one wants to be targeted by a President for special treatment for mild disagreement. As the degree of abuse escalates, and it will, even today’s tody oligarchs like the Zuck and Bezos, might have to high tail it to their safe houses in NZ.

Oligarchy has its privileges and NZ is the go-to