NEW YORK (AP) – When New York Assemblyman Alex Bores decided to seek a promotion to Congress, the technology industry leapt into his way.
Angered by Bores’ legislation regulating artificial intelligence, a political group underwritten by investors in OpenAI spent more than $7 million on ads designed to crush the former computer engineer, who’s running in the ultracompetitive June 23 Democratic primary for a Manhattan-based U.S. House district. That group, Leading the Future, counts titans of Silicon Valley, major venture capitalists and alumni of President Donald Trump’s Republican administration among its donors.
Bores complained about the spending, warning that it would deter other state lawmakers and members of Congress from trying to rein in the fast-growing industry. He swiftly became a nationally recognized cautionary tale of an underdog politician battling against an overwhelming tide of tech money.
But then another wing of Silicon Valley rode to Bores’ rescue. Political groups partly funded by Anthropic, the maker of the chatbot Claude, have spent more than $10 million boosting Bores’ campaign. Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, an Anthropic investor, has pledged another $3.5 million.
Bores’ race is now a proxy battle for two competing visions of how government should treat the technology industry and artificial intelligence. Adding to the tension is Bores’ past working for Palantir, which he quit during Trump’s first term over what he said were concerns about the tech company’s work on immigration enforcement.
“The lines are being drawn, and this primary is very much an expression of that,” said Morten Bay, a research fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California. “The core divide is regulation – whether you’re for or against it.”
The schism mirrors a similar one running through Silicon Valley. Some tech titans, like Elon Musk, have embraced Trump and his movement, as well as the idea of limiting or eliminating most government regulations. But a large chunk of the industry remains traditionally Democratic, in favor of some government safeguards.
Leading the Future – funded by major Trump donors like OpenAI President Greg Brockman, venture capitalist Marc Andreesen and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale – has spent $7.6 million through a subsidiary against Bores.
The political action committee, formed last year as the artificial intelligence industry’s main political muscle, says that it supports AI regulation but that Congress should take the lead. The group contends that Bores is the only candidate who is bought and paid for.
“As we have said from day one, Anthropic, its investors and the dark-money groups it funds would spend millions to send Alex Bores to Congress, and that is exactly what has happened,” said Josh Vlasto, a co-lead of Leading the Future.
Bores points to his own record crafting AI safety legislation for how he’d tackle the issue at the federal level. The regulation he spearheaded, known as the RAISE Act, is considered among the most sweeping attempts by a state to control the new technology. It requires major AI companies to file reports about safeguards against “catastrophic” risks that could injure more than 50 people, like the previously only-in-science-fiction scenario of AI melting down nuclear power plants or engineering new viruses.
Leading the Future opposed Bores’ original proposal but acceded to a modified version that was signed into law. But the PAC has made clear it hasn’t forgiven Bores and describes his views as extreme.
The RAISE Act is the sort of regulation that would be nullified by Trump’s proposed AI framework, which would bar states from enacting their own AI rules so Congress could create a national standard. However, there’s been little movement in Washington to do that, which has left the industry essentially unregulated at the federal level.
Leading the Future’s refrain that Bores is a tool of OpenAI’s business competitor has been taken up by Bores’ many rivals in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler. His 12th Congressional District stretches across upper and midtown Manhattan and is one of the wealthiest and most Democratic districts in the country. At recent debates, Bores’ opponents have claimed he’s simply a pawn in a corporate battle.
“You’re in the middle of a civil war between OpenAI and Anthropic. It has nothing to do with standing up to Trump’s mega donors,” said Jack Schlossberg, the Kennedy family heir and social media personality also running for the seat.
Bores and his allies contend his opponents are simply trying to confuse voters.
“This race started with AI megadonors pledging $10 million to stop me because they were afraid after I passed the strongest AI safety law in the country,” Bores said in a statement. “Since then, everyone who supports AI regulation and safety – from teachers to tech workers, from AI safety advocates to progressive activists – has united to take the other side. This isn’t one company versus another, this is one ideology versus another: regulate the powerful and protect people, or don’t.”
Brad Carson, a former Democratic congressman from Oklahoma, runs the political action committee Public First, which has spent more than $6 million to back Bores through a subsidiary. The committee was created explicitly to counter Leading the Future and was an outgrowth of a nonprofit Carson helped fund to push for AI regulation.
In an interview, Carson bristled at the suggestion that the enterprise was simply an Anthropic tool and said it had raised $30 million from nongovernmental organizations before Anthropic made a $20 million contribution. “It’s not like two billionaires fighting it out,” Carson said. “It’s two philosophical movements fighting it out. All of them have wealthy supporters.”
Chris Larsen, a cryptocurrency billionaire who’s pledged about $3.5 million on Bores’ behalf, said in a statement that his decision to get involved “resulted directly from OpenAI’s threats to make examples of candidates who seek common-sense regulation.”
Bay, the research fellow, noted that the district is an odd one for the more Trump-friendly groups to invest in because it’s so liberal. Indeed, Bores’ main rival for the nomination, Assemblyman Micah Lasher, supported Bores’ RAISE Act. Carson said his group wants Bores to win but is comfortable with Lasher.
“He’s very good on AI issues too,” Carson said. “We win either way.”
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