Unlike other parts of the technology industry, the artificial intelligence sector is have difficulty finding suitable recruitsand now a major tech company is asking the US government to update its immigration policy so as not to lose its AI talent.
Google sent information to the Department of Labor that immigration policies such as To plan — The list of “pre-certified” occupations facing a U.S. worker shortage should be modernized to include artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to keep up with the demand for these workers.
“It is widely acknowledged that there is a global shortage of AI talent, but the fact remains that the United States is one of the places where it is more tough to bring in talent from abroad and therefore risks losing some of the most sought-after people in the field. world” – Karan Bhatia, head of government affairs and public policy at Google, he told The Verge. He added that the list of occupations included in Annex A has not been updated for two decades.
Physical therapists, vocational nurses and other “immigrants with exceptional ability in science or art, including college and university teachers, as well as immigrants with exceptional ability in the performing arts” include the list of Schedule A occupations.
Companies with employees from outside the U.S. can apply for lasting residency or a green card for their employees and are required by the Department of Labor to obtain one lasting labor certificate or PERMwhich shows that there is a staff shortage in this role.
Google said in its letter that the Schedule A update will reduce green card processing times. Google said Schedule A “is currently not fit for purpose” in addressing the AI talent shortage.
The tech giant also urges the government to regularly update Schedule A to keep up with talent demand in other industries through a “data-driven, lucid process for reviewing and modifying the list.”
Bhatia told The Verge that the US tech industry is experiencing a shortage of AI specialists and that the country’s immigration policies make it tough to attract AI talent from abroad. Some Google employees even had to leave the country while waiting for a green card, he said.
A Quartz analysis of 2017 federal lobbying reports found that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was the only major tech company increasing its lobbying on immigrationciting the “travel ban,” “travel restrictions” and “travel from countries of concern” under former President Donald Trump’s “America First” immigration policy.
The The US sued Elon Musk’s SpaceX last August for “routine, widespread and long-term” employment discrimination after refusing to employ refugees and asylum seekers. Between September 2018 and May 2022, “SpaceX imposed a prohibition on hiring them regardless of qualifications, in violation of federal law,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
“SpaceX has repeatedly said that hiring anyone who is not a lasting resident of the United States would violate international arms trade law, which would be a crime” – Musk published on X in response to the Department of Justice’s lawsuit. “We couldn’t even hire Canadian citizens even though Canada is part of NORAD! This is yet another case of the Justice Department being weaponized for political purposes.”
The AI industry is currently experiencing a talent war bids reportedly go as high as $1 million. Even Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly did this wrote personal emails to artificial intelligence researchers at Google’s DeepMind convince them to cooperate with him. The company also reportedly offered jobs to candidates without interviews and abandoned its policy of not offering higher salaries to employees with job offers from competitors.
