Anthropic and OpenAI have spent millions in a political proxy conflict over AI regulation, including who should regulate AI and who should be punished for attempting regulation. The spending is tied to the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th congressional district, scheduled to end in June. A once-obscure New York state assemblyman, Alex Bores, has become a prominent figure in AI safety regulation. A super PAC called Leading the Future, funded by OpenAI, Palantir, and a16z executives, has spent millions against Bores since late 2025. The effort aimed to stop his bid for a seat vacated by Rep. Jerry Nadler, but Bores has emerged as a front-runner in an eight-person race. His rise occurred without a large ad campaign, with his first New York ad buy placed on May 11, shortly before polls close on June 23.
"By the time that the Democratic primary for New York's 12th congressional district wraps up in June, Anthropic and OpenAI will have spent millions on their battle over the political future of AI: who gets to regulate it, or who will be punished for trying to regulate it. But the real winner of their feud may be the guy they're currently fighting over: a once-obscure New York state assemblyman, who they've Streisand-effected into becoming the poster child for AI safety regulation."
"Ever since late 2025, Leading the Future, a super PAC funded by OpenAI, Palantir, and a16z executives, has spent millions against Alex Bores, who wrote one of the first pieces of AI regulatory legislation in the country. The PAC hoped to kill his bid for the seat about to be vacated by longtime Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler. Instead, Bores is now a front-runner in the eight-person race to become the "face of Manhattan," as New York Magazine recently put it in a cover feature."
"And shockingly, he pulled all this off without running a massive ad campaign. In fact, the Bores campaign told The Verge that it had placed its very first ad buy in New York on May 11th, nearly seven months after Bores entered the race and only weeks before the polls close on June 23r"
Read at The Verge
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]