Zanny Minton-Beddoes

Many, many, many of the top researchers in AI in the United States are foreign-born.

Yes.

In fact, four of the CEOs of the Magnificent Seven that we were talking about, four of them are foreign-born.

And so if the U.S.

genuinely becomes a place that is less

hospitable to foreign-born folk, then I think it has a very big impact

medium and long-term costs to the United States.

Because by and large, these people are some of the most productive and most skilled.

And they are the people who have come to the U.S.

because the strength of the U.S.

has been that this is a place which attracts the best and the brightest from around the world, has the biggest and deepest capital markets, and so is a magnet for smart people, good ideas, and they get them funded there.

And that's the engine of U.S.

growth.

And if you suddenly...

develop a reputation for being a place that doesn't really like foreigners and doesn't want high-skilled foreigners, I think it will really hurt the U.S.

's ability to maintain its position as one of the most innovative and successful economies.

There's a study that suggests that something like between 30 and 50 percent of America's productivity gains between 1990 and 2010 were thanks to skilled immigrants.

It's an extraordinarily high share.

Can I ask you a question, though?

I think if you asked a member of the administration, it would be these H-1B visas have for too long been a way for companies to get cheap skilled workers from abroad,