Pro-AI Group Launches First of Many Attack Ads for US Election

'Super PAC aims to drown out AI critics in midterms,' the Washington Post reported in August, noting its intial funding over $100 million from 'some of Silicon Valley's most powerful investors and executives' including OpenAI president Greg Brockman, his wife, and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. The group's goal was 'to quash a philosophical debate that has divided the tech industry on the risk of artificial intelligence overpowering humanity,' according to the article — and to support 'pro-AI' candidates in America's next election in November of 2026 and 'oppose candidates perceived as slowing down AI development.'

Their first target? State assemblyman Alex Bores, now running to be a U.S. representative. While in the state legislature Bores sponsored a bill that would 'require large AI companies to publish safety data on their technology,' notes the Washington Post. So the attack ad charges that Bores 'wants Albany bureaucrats regulating AI,' excoriating him for sponsoring a bill that 'hands AI to state regulators and creates a chaotic patchwork of state rules that would crush innovation, cost New York jobs, and fail to keep people safe! And he's backed by groups funded by convicted felon Sam Bankman-Fried. Is that really who should be shaping AI safety for our kids? America needs one smart national policy that sets clear stands for safe AI not Albany politicians like Alex Bores.'

The Post calls it 'the opening skirmish in a battle set to play out across the country' as tech moguls (and an independent effort receiving 'tens of millions' from Meta) 'try to use the 2026 midterms to reengineer Congress and state legislatures in favor of their ambitions for artificial intelligence' and 'to wrest control of the narrative around AI, just as politicians in both parties have started warning that the industry is moving too fast.'

By knocking down candidates such as Bores, who favor regulations, and boosting industry sympathizers, the tech-backed groups could signal to incumbents and candidates nationwide that opposing the tech industry can jeopardize their electoral chances. 'Bores just happened to be first, but he's not the last, and he's certainly not the only,' said Josh Vlasto, co-head of Leading the Future, the bipartisan super PAC behind the ad.

The group plans to support and oppose candidates in congressional and state elections next year. It will also fund rapid response operations against voices in the industry pushing for more oversight... The strategy aims to replicate the success of the cryptocurrency industry, which used a super PAC to clear a path for Congress this summer to boost the sector's fortunes with the passage of the Genius Act... But signs that voters are increasingly wary of AI suggest that approach may be challenging to replicate. More than half of Americans believe AI poses a high risk to society, Pew Research Center found in a June survey. As AI usage continues to grow, more people are being warned by chief executives that AI will disrupt their jobs, seeing power-hungry data centers spring up in their towns or hearing claims that chatbots can harm mental health.



The article also notes there's at least two other groups seeking to counter this pro-AI push, raising money through a nonprofit called 'Public First.'

CNN calls the new pro-AI ads 'a likely preview of the vast amounts of money the technology industry could spend ahead of next year's elections,' noting that the ads are first targeting the candidate-choosing primary elections

Read more of this story at Slashdot.