AI teams spend $20 million in New York race beating Bores, Lasher, Schlossberg
AI companies have poured more than $20 million into a New York Democratic primary race that could shape what artificial intelligence policies the federal government ultimately adopts. The race in the Manhattan congressional district pits national security attorney Alex Bores against AI security attorney Micah Lasher and John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg.
Two major PACs linked to AI companies are contesting New York’s 12th congressional district — the only congressional race so far where both parties are involved.
Leading the Future, whose backers include venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Open AI founder Greg Brockman, and AI software company Perplexity, spent $8 million opposing Bores, who was a lobbyist in the federal government to pass legislation requiring safety and security controls for powerful AI models.
Fighting that spending is Public First Action, which received $20 million from Anthropic. The party supported Bores to the tune of $11 million, according to Federal Election Commission data reviewed by CNBC on Monday.
Public First Action is an arm of Americans for Responsible Innovation, the AI security group. Its president, Brad Carson, said that although the group does not disclose its sponsors, it has received support from employees of large AI companies, which he described as “middle-class people who are very afraid of where the technology is going.”
Big spending in one House race has become a battle for the future of AI regulation in the US and how hard the government should be taken as the industry grows and AI gains a wider place in society.
Leading the Future supports lighter roads around the growing AI industry than Public First Action does.
Leading the future co-leader Josh Vlasto, in a statement sent to CNBC that the PAC “supports the passage of a national AI regulatory framework that creates jobs for American workers, helps America win the race against China, and includes strong safeguards that protect the safety of children, users, and communities.”
When the PAC was founded in August, it said it would “oppose policies that hinder innovation, allow China to achieve global AI supremacy, or make it difficult to bring the benefits of AI to the world.”
Meanwhile, Public First Action is advocating for more restrictions not only on the results of AI models, but also on how they are created.
“Safety should be designed into AI models,” Carson said. “Controlling the consequences of a long, long, long-standing problem that has been mentioned does little justice to the people harmed by AI.”
That’s in line with Bores’ view that while AI can be a positive development, it needs to have limits.
“Regulation is not going to be the reason we win or lose this race against China,” Bores, an engineer and computer scientist who once worked at Palantir, told CNBC on Monday while campaigning outside a subway stop. “We can invest in AI aimed at helping doctors diagnose diseases without promoting AI that helps healthcare deny claims. We can get the best of both worlds.”
While Leading the Future and First Community Action are the two biggest AI PACs so far in the midterm elections, they aren’t the only AI groups spending in the race. Several small PACs, many with ties to AI companies or Silicon Valley have emerged on the “pro-regulation” side.
Ripple founder Chris Larsen gave $3 million in support of Bores through his not-so-named PAC, You Can Push Back.
Dan Ziegler of Anthropic contributed heavily to another super PAC DREAM NYC, which ran an ad saying Bores would “stand up to Trump’s billionaire allies.” President Donald Trump in early June signed an executive order asking AI companies to voluntarily provide models to the federal government to test their capabilities before full release.
Another PAC, the Guardrails Alliance, has spent only about $258,000 on the race, but it aims to voice OpenAI employees who are concerned about the political spending of some of the company’s executives.
Because the district is heavily Democratic-leaning, whoever wins the primary is guaranteed to be sworn into Congress next year. Bores is one of eight candidates for this seat. Recent polls show him neck and neck with Lasher, and Schlossberg is another contender. George Conway, a lawyer who was married to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is also running.
If the Bores are defeated, it may not be a complete victory for the less controlled crowd. Lasher may not have taken the lead on New York’s AI regulation bill the way Bores did, but he did vote to approve it in the state Assembly, and his website says the state “can’t let Big Tech take over.”
