America’s Peace Corps enter global AI competition with new ‘Tech Corps’

As competition with China intensifies, Washington is turning to the cornerstone of American soft power and diplomacy to expand its global influence in artificial intelligence: the Peace Corps.

The White House is open Announced Friday The “Technical Corps” initiative within the Peace Corps aimed to promote American artificial intelligence abroad and help partner nations adopt the latest systems.

The Peace Corps is an independent U.S. government agency that sends American volunteers abroad to support domestic development projects, including education, health, agriculture, and economic growth.

The new Tech Corps will be structured similarly but will recruit, train and deploy volunteers with technical skills, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics engineers and graduates, to provide “last mile” support for the implementation of American AI solutions abroad, primarily at the application layer.

A. website He has launched and is accepting applications for Tech Corps, which he says will be accepted on a rolling basis.

One announcementThe Peace Corps said the AI ​​solutions the new group is implementing will address “real-world grassroots problems” in key sectors including agriculture, education, health and economic development.

Volunteers will be sent to countries participating in the American Artificial Intelligence Export Program, announced in July as part of a Trump administration executive order aimed at maintaining the United States’ global dominance in advanced technologies.

The executive order is in line with broader U.S. efforts to counter the influence of Chinese technologies globally, including in developing countries.

Chinese firms have gained traction in some developing countries by offering open-source or vulnerability-heavy models, including Qwen3 and Deepseek, that are cheap, highly customizable and can run on local infrastructure.

While the full list of countries participating in the Artificial Intelligence Export Program remains unclear, the Ministry of Commerce and India are expected to be among these countries. We welcome your participation last week.

This announcement came ahead of the inaugural India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, first announced Tech Corps.

India also joins the US-led coalition Pax Silica The initiative is a Trump administration initiative aimed at securing the global supply chain for silicon-based technologies, with Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, Israel, the United Kingdom, Australia, Qatar and the UAE as core members.

At the summit, Kratsios argued that expanding access to U.S. AI technologies is central to closing the gap in global AI adoption between developed and developing economies. “True AI sovereignty means owning and using best-in-class technology for the benefit of your people,” he said.

AI sovereignty, a key topic at the India AI conference, refers to a country’s ability to develop, control and manage AI systems within its legal, economic and strategic framework.

The summit saw a number of American technology companies announce major investments in India’s AI infrastructure, on top of the billions announced last year in line with Tech Corps’ goals.

“Artificial intelligence is the future, and the United States, the undisputed world leader in AI technology, will be at the forefront of delivering these benefits through Tech Corps,” said Richard E. Swarttz, acting director of the Peace Corps.

Tech Corps volunteers will serve overseas or participate in virtual service placements for 12 to 27 months, with on-ground deployments expected to begin in fall 2026. As with the Peace Corps, volunteers will receive housing, health care, a living wage, and service awards upon completion.

In addition to Tech Corps, the White House also announced other initiatives during the India AI Summit, including the National Champions Initiative to integrate leading foreign AI companies into customized American AI export stacks.

“We recognize that partners need the chance to build their own domestic technology industries, and we believe facilitating this will be a critical part of the export program,” the White House said. he said.

It also announced new initiatives to help partner countries “overcome financing hurdles when importing the American AI stack” through other soft power institutions such as the World Bank and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.