The Peace Corps is recruiting volunteers to sell AI to developing countries
For more than six decades, the Peace Corps has stood as an agency dedicated to helping underserved communities around the world. But the new program, called “Tech Corps,” threatens to expose the agency’s early work by hiring de facto Silicon Valley vendors to develop big names in AI — many of whom have ties to President Donald Trump.
Established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, the Peace Corps recruited talented Americans interested in helping developing countries in industries such as education, health care, and agriculture. As noted by the Brookings Institution, this organization was created to “win the hearts and minds” of countries that were not aligned with the US during the Cold War. Now, the version of diplomacy that will be pushing is the idea of American-made AI tools in an effort to “enhance opportunity and prosperity” in developing countries.
As noted on the Tech Corps website, the program will recruit volunteers to “support the adoption of American AI for the last mile.” The qualifications are broad; Tech Corps states that volunteers must have a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, or relevant work experience.
It will assign volunteers based on requests from countries in the American AI Exports Program, which is supposed to help foreign businesses “engage with or buy American AI.” One example of a Tech Corps assignment describes volunteers helping to integrate an AI-powered healthcare system at a local hospital, training staff, and developing privacy policies. Another describes volunteers working with state education departments to “identify gaps in student, teacher, and parent services where AI education tools can have the most impact.”
Kelsey Quinn, project leader and technology and security analyst at the New Lines Institute, tells. The Verge that while it is “not at all unusual for the Peace Corps to enter the field of technology,” the “commercial structure” of the Tech Corps is different. “This program uses volunteers to support specific adoption of American AI products that countries have purchased, not just to increase digital literacy as a skill,” Quinn said.
Some of Peace Corps’ previous technology projects have included teaching STEM skills to girls in Zambia, Thailand, and Albania, and providing communications technology training in Vanuatu. But the Tech Corps is tying its aid directly to American AI programs purchased by developing countries, as the program’s launch date depends on the first sales made through the American AI Export Program, according to its website.
Like the American AI Exports Program, Tech Corps is seen as another advantage in the AI industry. Between dinners with technology CEOs and their contributions to the ballroom of the White House, Trump stood behind the plans of OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank to build several data centers throughout the US. Trump also signed an executive order to discourage states from passing laws to regulate AI.
Meanwhile, Trump has dramatically changed the US government’s foreign aid program. Last year, the Department of Public Works disbanded the US Agency for International Development, a move that has already led to hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, according to the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. A message from The Atlantic reveals that the Trump administration has plans to cut aid to seven African countries, while directing aid to two others.
“These Tech Corps employees will serve as catalysts for US tech”
Questions remain about whether the Tech Corps will achieve its mission. China has already laid the groundwork for promoting the adoption of its AI programs through the country’s Digital Silk Road initiative, which brings Chinese technology to developing countries, such as Egypt, Zambia, Pakistan, Serbia, Ecuador, and many others. “These Tech Corps employees will serve as catalysts for US technology in these emerging markets where China has already maintained, if not expanded, its lead in marketing and promotion,” said Meicen Sun, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and MIT FutureTech affiliate. The Verge.
Chinese AI models also have an advantage when it comes to operating in environments that don’t have sprawling data centers and power grids to support high-demand systems. Quinn says these types are already “gaining traction in developing economies because they’re cheap and can work with local infrastructure.” Microsoft researchers recently discovered that the popularity of AI models developed by DeepSeek — a Chinese company that develops powerful, efficient AI systems — has spread to Iran, Cuba, and Belarus, as well as across Africa, where Microsoft notes that China’s Huawei has “promoted and spread the platform.”
Quinn says failure is “absolutely possible” for the Tech Corps, as major aid cuts and the downsizing of the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy put it “on a shaky institutional foundation.” That, combined with its relationship with the American AI Exports Program, could end up driving countries away. “This combination could make target countries suspicious of the Tech Corps and paradoxically encourage strong behavior in target countries, which is exactly the opposite of what the administration wants.” And the main goal of this administration is clear: to make Big Tech partners happy.
