Descriptions:
Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and President Trump’s chief science and technology adviser, speaks at Y Combinator’s Startup School about how the current administration thinks about AI regulation, American competitiveness, and the role of startups in the national AI strategy. Kratsios brings a rare combination of perspectives: he served as the country’s CTO during Trump’s first term, then as COO of Scale AI, before returning to government — giving him credibility with both the policy and operator communities.
The conversation centers on the administration’s core regulatory philosophy: removing barriers to innovation rather than adding new ones. Kratsios introduces a framework distinguishing ‘born free’ technologies — those that exist before regulations are written, giving innovators room to act — from ‘born in captivity’ technologies that emerge into an already-regulated landscape. He argues the administration’s primary goal is to ensure a single national AI regulatory framework that avoids the patchwork of state-by-state compliance costs that disproportionately burden startups over hyperscalers. The Office of Management and Budget’s deregulatory mandate under Russ Vought is presented as a structural commitment to this direction.
Kratsios repeatedly returns to the importance of ‘little tech’ — a phrase the president himself has championed — having a seat at the table in AI policy conversations. Drawing on his own years at a venture firm in San Francisco, he frames American startup culture as something uniquely worth protecting and argues that the administration’s focus on regulatory clarity and ease is its most important tool for keeping the U.S. at the frontier of AI development.
📺 Source: Y Combinator · Published August 18, 2026
🏷️ Format: Interview
