How AI Super PACs Are Shaping The Midterms
AI-backed super PACs spent tens of millions during the midterms, with rival groups backed by OpenAI and Anthropic clashing over AI regulation policy. The competing PACs influenced congressional races, particularly one in New York where they opposed and supported different candidates based on their stance on AI regulation.
Summary
Two major AI-backed super PACs engaged in a high-stakes battle during the midterm elections, centered on federal AI regulation policy. Leading the Future, funded by OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, spent over $24 million opposing New York State Assemblyman Alex Bores, who had championed the RAISE Act—one of the first state-level bills designed to regulate AI. The super PAC launched attack ads claiming the legislation would create a chaotic patchwork of state rules that could crush innovation and cost jobs.
In response, Public First Action, partially backed by Anthropic, spent over $20 million supporting Bores. Some observers characterized this as a proxy war between the rival AI companies, though both Anthropic and OpenAI attempted to distance themselves from the PACs' political activities. Despite the combined spending of over $37 million in this single race alone, Bores ultimately lost the primary to Michael Lasher, who expressed skepticism toward both major AI companies' regulatory influence.
The PACs' spending reflects deeper policy disagreements within the AI industry and Congress. Leading the Future advocates for a unified national regulatory framework for AI development, while opponents like Bores support state-level regulation. Democrats remain divided on AI policy, with some members like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez supporting data center bans, while others like Josh Gottheimer and Ted Lieu favor collaboration with AI companies. By the midpoint of the primary season, Leading the Future had raised $125 million and Public First Action $80 million, with additional AI-backed PACs also funding races. The ongoing debate centers on whether state-by-state regulation or federal standards better serve innovation, safety, and public concerns about jobs, utility costs, and environmental impact.
Key Insights
- Leading the Future spent over $8 million on attack ads against Alex Bores specifically because he passed the RAISE Act, the strongest state-level AI safety bill, which the super PAC argued would create conflicting requirements that could slow AI development
- Public First Action was created as an innovation to counter another super PAC's activities, representing a unique defensive structure in political spending where one PAC's existence is explicitly designed to oppose another's
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed the company has not been involved in a massive lobbying campaign and does much less relative to other companies in the industry when asked about midterm spending
- Michael Lasher, who won the primary despite or because of AI company interest, explicitly rejected taking cues from OpenAI and Anthropic on policy, positioning himself as opposed to AI company influence on technology regulation
- By midway through the primary season, the two largest AI-backed super PACs had raised a combined $205 million, with three additional AI-backed PACs spending an extra $5.9 million on a single congressional race, demonstrating unprecedented financial mobilization around AI regulation issues
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] The two largest AI backed super PACs in the country went head-to-head in a Democratic primary for a coveted House seat in New York's wealthiest district. >> Hi, tomorrow's the last day to vote. >> The race was the heart of the battle over federal regulation in AI. >> How many ads have you seen, you think, for this congressional race? >> I've seen so many ads. >> I have been tracking the dozens of races that are being influenced by AI money. The issue is top of mind for AI leaders as they gather with media moguls and tech CEOs in Sun Valley, Idaho for the [0:32] annual Allen and Company conference this week. signed 21.3 million over…
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