Okay team, buckle up, because Silicon Valley just picked its first political fight of the AI era — and yup, they’re swinging with a $100 million super PAC.
The group’s called Leading the Future, and it’s backed by a16z, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and even Perplexity.
And their very first target?
Not Congress. Not the White House. But a New York Assemblymember named Alex Bores, who apparently committed the cardinal sin of… wanting AI companies to have a safety plan.
Yep. That’s the whole plot twist.
So here’s the tea:
Bores is the main force behind New York’s RAISE Act — basically a “hey maybe don’t unleash world-breaking AI chaos onto the public” bill.
The bill says big AI labs need to:
Have an actual safety plan
Follow that safety plan
Report major incidents (like model theft)
And avoid shipping models with obvious catastrophic risks
And if they don’t? The state can fine them up to $30 million.
Like… this is not “ban AI” energy. This is “we require restaurant workers to wash their hands” energy.
And the wild part? Bores didn’t even go full regulatory pitbull.
He met with OpenAI and Anthropic while drafting the bill. The industry pushed back on stuff like third-party audits, so he cut them.
And still — still — the super PAC told Politico they’re prepping a multibillion-dollar effort to sink his congressional campaign.
According to them the bill is: anti-innovation, anti-jobs, anti-America, pro-China.
Which is… a lot of “anti” for a bill that mostly says, “please don’t let your AI get stolen by bad people.”
Meanwhile, Bores is unbothered.
He told reporters he just forwards these PAC attack lines to his constituents. And honestly? If done well, that’s an entire campaign strategy right there.
Zooming out — this is not just a New York drama.
There’s been a huge push to block states from regulating AI at all. A federal preemption clause even got slipped into the national budget earlier this year… before being pulled.
Now folks like… cough Ted Cruz cough… are trying to revive it, because the industry desperately wants one single federal rulebook. Ideally, one they’re comfy with, instead of 50 mini rulebooks.
But here’s Bores’ sweet counter-argument:
For him, states are like policy startups — they move fast, experiment, and figure out what works long before Congress finishes arguing about the name of a subcommittee.
He’s already working with lawmakers in other states to sync safety rules, so yeah there’s no “patchwork” problem.
And he’s crystal clear: regulation isn’t anti-innovation — it’s how you build trust so AI doesn’t implode under its own hype.
The big takeaway?
This is the opening battle in America’s AI governance saga.
Silicon Valley is throwing money for speed. States want safety. And as for where the future of AI might get decided… well, we’ll have to wait and see for ourselves.
