CustomersAI CEO Larry Kim: Advocates for Closing H-1B Program, Fears It May Be Too Late as Companies Replace Entry-Level Hiring with AI
Customers.ai CEO Larry Kim continued his posts stating that the H-1B program has now been completely taken over by scammers, and it would be best to dismantle it; he is unsure if the program has always been this way. He admitted to cognitive bias, having previously viewed his path through Waterloo graduation, H-1B entry, and EB-1A citizenship as a baseline for everyone, but now believes it to be a complete scam.
Kim advocates for closing the program and fears it may be too late: companies are already using artificial intelligence to replace entry-level hiring instead of continuing to import entry-level foreign labor. He explained that the H-1B is a dual-intent visa, allowing holders to legally apply for a green card while holding and renewing the visa. Recently, the White House has tied some overseas H-1B applications to a $100,000 fee and a record of layoffs from sponsoring companies, leading to a significant drop in contractor registrations.
When discussing birthplace, Kim mentioned that the company also employs many outstanding Canadians and donates to Canadian schools, but believes Canada is not a suitable place for ambitious business endeavors; it was already lacking 20 years ago and is worse now, hoping for improvements. His business trajectory remains in the U.S.: after selling WordStream, he continued to operate Customers.ai, employing over a thousand Americans in nearly a decade.
The dual-intent clause has transformed the H-1B from a temporary specialty worker visa into a green card queue. When the lottery is combined with low-paying positions, this bridge is heavily utilized; when fees and layoff reviews overlap, the bridge is only open to high-paying positions that can prove they do not replace domestic employees. Kim has re-evaluated his personal success from "the program is effective" to "sample bias," while attributing changes on the demand side to models replacing entry-level positions.
In market mechanisms, the argument for closure itself is a repricing of the remaining quotas. Employers still applying are those who can afford the $100,000 fee and have sufficiently high job salaries; those exiting are staffing companies that win lotteries based on size. Funding is shifting from mid-level IT salary bills to compliance fees, local hiring budgets, and AI tool subscriptions. Beneficiaries are founders who have completed their identity transitions and become employers; those under pressure are entry-level candidates who view H-1B as the only ladder to the U.S. and those who see Canada as an alternative destination for entrepreneurship. The price signal of labor supply has shifted from visa intermediary fees to model inference costs.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Kim's continuous posts reflect a self-correction: from "I succeeded, so the program is useful" to "I succeeded because the thresholds then were different from today." The EB-1A and H-1B dual intent were still high-skill pathways around 2010; in the 2020s, the volume of outsourcing, fee-packaged applications, and the gray market for EB-1A papers have turned the pathway into a purchasable queue right. His mention of Canada expands the issue from a singular U.S. visa to a comparative analysis of the North American entrepreneurial environment—talent still concentrates in the U.S., with birthplace noted as unsuitable for ambitious business endeavors.
The capital path represents the depreciation of identity assets. Early H-1B holders viewed the visa as an option, converting to employers and taxpayers upon exercising it; later entrants face fees, layoff scrutiny, and longer waiver queues. Companies have shifted their entry-level position budgets from "processing visas" to "buying models," with unit output no longer tied to a physical presence in the U.S. Simultaneously donating to Canadian schools and hiring in the U.S. indicates that the narrative of human capital return is weaker than that of capital and customer market locations.
Similar splits occurred after Brexit with tightened high-skill visas and Australia’s quota for graduate work visas. The current phase sees the U.S. transforming the H-1B from a lubricant in the labor market to a high-priced valve, while Canada is viewed by founders as lacking in regulation and growth expectations. Those still treating the lottery as career planning are at the wrong price; those who can hire directly in the U.S. or use models to replace entry-level positions no longer need this bridge.
Structural judgments belong to the overlay of technological replacement and regulatory changes. AI lowers the marginal cost of entry-level cognitive labor, while regulations increase the entry costs for foreign entry-level labor, with both curves intersecting in the same year. The mechanism is: when renewals still allow for green card applications, the program will be treated as a perpetual temporary worker visa; when approvals begin to check layoffs and salaries, the perpetual structure survives only for high-paying positions. Pricing power has shifted from intermediaries and outsourcing companies to employers who can write $100,000 checks and demonstrate local hiring ledgers.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
- Personal pathways are not institutional pathways.
- Dual intent allows temporary work visas to grow into green card queues.
- Replacements for entry-level positions have shifted from foreign colleagues to models.