In the primary race for the Congressional seat representing the deep blue heart of Manhattan, Alex Bores is everywhere: on TV, in the mail, plastered across the front page of the community newspaper.<\/p>\n
The full-page ad on the front of the latest edition of the Upper East Side\u2019s “Our Town” opposes the state lawmaker. An ad on the back supports him. Both were paid for by super PACs linked to AI companies.<\/p>\n
As of Monday, six different super PACs have spent a total of nearly $30 million in the race.<\/p>\n
A large chunk of that is being directed toward Bores in what some are framing as an existential fight over the future of the AI industry. And by throwing the first punch, those opposed to Bores may have lifted a once obscure candidate and made him look like a champion of AI regulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a serious risk of that kind of spending,\u201d said Molly White, an AI researcher who runs the website Tech Influence Watch<\/a>. \u201c\u200aA candidate who is not so well-known or didn’t have that distinguished of a platform suddenly has millions of dollars dumped into the race against them, and now he’s making headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n Bores was elected to represent the Upper East Side in the state Assembly in 2022. He says he was the first Democrat elected to any level of New York State government with a computer science degree. He previously worked as a data scientist for Palantir, the secretive tech giant that has multibillion dollar contracts with the US. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.<\/p>\n Last year, Bores was a key player in getting the RAISE Act<\/a>, which requires large AI companies to publish and maintain public safety plans, through the state Legislature. He has described the law as the \u201cstrongest AI safety law in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n In October,<\/a> Bores announced he was entering the race to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler in Congress. It is a crowded race and its winner will represent one of the most high-profile districts in the country. The super PACs opposing Bores\u2019 approach to AI regulation wasted little time in mounting their campaign against him.<\/p>\n Leading the Future, a super PAC funded by some of the founders of Palantir and Open AI, announced in November<\/a> that Bores would be its first opposition target of the election cycle.<\/p>\n Leading the Future seeded an affiliated super PAC called Think Big<\/a> with $10 million. Its first ad<\/a>, in December, blasted Bores and the RAISE Act for creating \u201ca chaotic patchwork of state rules that would crush innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n But the outside group\u2019s decision to spend so much money against Bores early in the race may have backfired. Instead of throwing cold water on the embers of a young campaign \u2014 the negative ads appear to have acted more like lighter fluid.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day we’re getting them in the mail, these very high-gloss postcards and flyers,\u201d said Denise Madison of West 79th Street, who was leaving Zabar\u2019s last week with a loaf of sourdough and a tub of coleslaw.<\/p>\n Madison said she\u2019d never even heard of Bores and \u201cit made me wonder why they were against him.\u201d She said she then read about the super PAC spending and Bores\u2019 AI safety legislation.<\/p>\n Madison said she now plans to vote for Bores. She said she is also trying to convince her son to do the same. \u201c\u200aIt seems like he has his nose to the grind and wants to create bills that help us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n One early poll<\/a> found Bores polling at about 11%, well behind Kennedy scion and social media star Jack Schlossberg and prominent Trump critic George Conway. An Emerson College Polling\/PIX 11 survey from May now shows Bores essentially tied for the lead<\/a> with Upper West Side Assemblymember Micah Lasher.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the two super PACs said they expected AI giant Anthropic and its allies to spend big for Bores and wanted to get a head start.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew from day one that Anthropic, its investors and the dark money groups they fund would spend millions to send Alex Bores to Congress and that is exactly what they have done,\u201d said Josh Vlasto, the treasurer of the Think Big PAC and co-founder of the Leading the Future PAC.<\/p>\n Money has since poured in for Bores from outside groups connected to Anthropic and the cryptocurrency industry.<\/p>\n The \u201cJobs and Democracy<\/a>\u201d PAC has spent nearly $6 million in support of Bores, according to federal campaign finance data. Filings show the group is funded by the Public First<\/a> network, a dark money group linked to Anthropic.<\/p>\n A super PAC called \u201cYou Can Push Back<\/a>\u201d has spent nearly $1.9 million to support Bores. The group is entirely funded by crypto billionaire Chris Larsen.<\/p>\n In total, about $9.7 million has now been spent in support of Bores \u2014 compared to nearly $7.7 million opposed.<\/p>\n Bores is not the only target of super PAC spending. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg has also pledged $10 million to another super PAC, Stand for New York, to support Lasher, who served as an aide in his administration. Another group, Nuestro PAC, which aims to turn out Latino voters and has ties to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has spent more than $2 million against Lasher.<\/p>\n A representative for Bores said the outside spending in support of Bores was a direct response to the early attacks by the Leading the Future and Think Big PACs.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir no-guardrails ideology has served to unite nearly every corner of the Democratic party around Alex Bores,\u201d campaign spokesperson Alyssa Cass said.<\/p>\n Experts who study the AI industry say the electioneering in the Manhattan primary is just the latest front in an ongoing civil war.<\/p>\n Anthropic was founded by former senior members of OpenAI, the creator of the popular ChatGPT chatbot, over safety concerns. The company has grown exponentially while making safety a key part of its business model \u2013 its co-founder even appeared alongside the Pope<\/a> for a speech about AI regulation.<\/p>\n