AI Industry Super PAC Spends Big to Crush Pro-Regulation NY Candidate

Leading the Future, a Super PAC backed by AI industry leaders including Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, is running attack ads against New York Democrat Alex Bores in his race to replace Jerry Nadler in Congress. The reason: Bores passed the RAISE Act, widely regarded as the most far-reaching AI safety bill in the country. The campaign is being seen as a warning to any politician who dares regulate AI.

The Two-Punch Strategy

The PAC's approach reveals a calculated playbook. The first ad attacked Bores directly over his AI safety bill, the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Safety and Education Act (RAISE Act), which requires major AI companies to conduct safety checks and make results public. The second ad went for the jugular: it attacked Bores over his past employment at Palantir, claiming he "made hundreds of thousands of dollars building and selling the tech for ICE."

The irony? One of Leading the Future's founding backers, Joe Lonsdale, is a co-founder of Palantir — the very company the ad uses to attack Bores. Bores says he never worked on Palantir's ICE contract and quit over his objections to that work. He sent Leading the Future a cease-and-desist letter alleging false statements.

The Real Goal: Intimidation

"Leading the Future's goal is not actually to kill Alex's race. Their goal is to scare other legislators into submission," says Adam Billen, VP of public policy at Encode AI. The first ad makes clear what gets you on the PAC's bad side (regulating AI). The second ad demonstrates how dangerous being on that bad side will be.

This strategy mirrors what tech-aligned PACs have done in other races: target one candidate aggressively to send a message to every other politician watching. If you propose AI regulation, expect millions in attack ads hitting you on whatever is most politically damaging.

What the RAISE Act Actually Does

The bill Bores passed is relatively moderate by global standards. It requires major AI companies to conduct safety checks on their products and make the results public. It defines "catastrophic harms" as causing more than 100 deaths or $1 billion in damages. Requirements that the AI industry found most objectionable, like mandatory third-party audits, were dropped during revisions.

Bores says the goal was to avoid a dynamic like the tobacco industry in the 1990s, "where they knew that their products caused cancer but continued to deny it publicly."

The Bigger Picture

This race is a test case for how the AI industry plans to handle regulation going forward. With federal AI legislation stalled, state-level regulation has become the primary battleground. California's SB 1047 was vetoed last year, and now the AI industry is making clear that any politician who pushes similar bills will face well-funded opposition.

Leading the Future's co-head Josh Vlasto is blunt about the strategy: "When we decide to engage in a race, we're going to run the campaign that's most effective."

The Bottom Line

A Super PAC funded by AI billionaires is spending millions to take down a state legislator who passed a modest AI safety bill. The Palantir co-founder is funding ads attacking a candidate for working at Palantir. The stated goal is not to win this specific race but to terrify every other politician into staying away from AI regulation. If you needed proof that the AI industry is treating regulation as an existential threat, this is it. The question is whether voters care more about AI safety or attack ads funded by the companies fighting against it.