Immigration Barriers for Highly Skilled Workers Lowered

The White House is scheduled to announce an executive order related to artificial intelligence (AI) next week, and it is reported that it may include contents such as easing immigration barriers for personnel in the AI field.

The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 25th, citing multiple sources, that the White House is expected to announce such an executive order on the 30th.

There is a possibility of easing immigration barriers for high-skilled workers to advance technology in the AI sector in the United States.

As the U.S. tech industry continues to call for easing immigration barriers for engineers and high-skilled workers, the Department of Homeland Security announced on the 23rd that it is proposing changes to the related visa (H-1B) program.

One source said the State Department is also planning to roll out a new visa program targeting AI talent, and government agencies are expected to assess the current AI workforce size. The executive order is also expected to include language that would allow the federal government to use its position as a major consumer to evaluate advanced AI models before federal government employees use them.

The evaluation of large language models (LLMs) purchased by the federal government is expected to be led by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which announced a system for AI risk management this year.

In addition, it may include requests to federal government agencies such as the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and intelligence agencies to evaluate how to use AI technology to strengthen cyber defense.

The executive order is expected to be based on the voluntary commitments of 15 companies, including Open AI, Google, Adobe, and NVIDIA. The agreement, concluded last month, includes a request to develop technology that can identify AI-generated images and to share safety-related data with the government and academia.