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a16z-backed super PAC targeting Alex Bores over NY AI safety bill
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Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: TechCrunch
Illustrates the political economy of AI regulation: well-funded tech industry super PACs actively targeting legislators who support AI safety bills, relevant to understanding industry resistance to governance efforts.
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Importance: 52/100news articlenews
Summary
A super PAC backed by Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI, and other tech industry leaders has targeted New York Assembly member Alex Bores' congressional campaign in retaliation for his sponsorship of New York's AI safety bill. This marks the PAC's first direct political attack on a lawmaker supporting AI regulation. Bores responded defiantly, framing the opposition as validation of the bill's significance.
Key Points
- •A super PAC funded by a16z, OpenAI, and other tech leaders is running attack ads against Alex Bores' congressional campaign.
- •Bores sponsored New York's AI safety bill, making him the first legislator targeted by this PAC for supporting AI regulation.
- •The move signals that tech industry players are willing to use electoral politics to resist state-level AI safety legislation.
- •Bores welcomed the political fight, suggesting the opposition confirms the bill's potential impact on powerful interests.
- •This is part of a broader pattern of tech industry lobbying and political spending to shape AI governance outcomes.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Leading the Future super PAC | Organization | 73.0 |
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a16z-backed super PAC is targeting Alex Bores, sponsor of New York’s AI safety bill -- he says bring it on | TechCrunch
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a16z-backed super PAC is targeting Alex Bores, sponsor of New York’s AI safety bill — he says bring it on
Rebecca Bellan
4:32 PM PST · November 17, 2025
A pro-AI super PAC backed by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman has chosen New York Assembly member Alex Bores — and his congressional bid — as its first target.
The PAC, dubbed Leading the Future , formed in August with a more than $100 million commitment to support policymakers with a light-touch — or a no-touch — approach to AI regulation. And that means going after policymakers who want to regulate AI. The super PAC has backing from a number of other prominent leaders in tech, including Palantir co-founder and 8VC managing partner Joe Lonsdale as well as AI search engine Perplexity.
“I appreciate how straightforward they’re being about it,” Bores told a room of journalists Monday evening at a Journalism Workshop on AGI impacts and governance in Washington, D.C. “When they say, ‘Hey, we’re going to spend millions against Alex because he might regulate Big Tech and put basic guardrails on AI,’ I just basically forward that to my constituents.”
Bores, who’s running to represent the state’s 12th Congressional District, said AI anxieties are on the rise among his constituents, who worry about everything from data centers pushing up utility bills and worsening climate change to chatbots impacting kids’ mental health and automation transforming the job market.
Bores is the chief sponsor of New York’s bipartisan RAISE Act , which requires large AI labs to have a safety plan in place to prevent critical harms, follow their own safety plan, and disclose critical safety incidents, like bad actors stealing an AI model. The bill also prohibits AI firms from releasing models with unreasonable risks of critical harm and imposes civil penalties of up to $30 million if companies fail to live up to these standards. The legislation is currently awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature.
Bores said while drafting and redrafting the bill, he consulted with the large AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic. Those ne
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