The tug-of-war over artificial intelligence regulation is drawing a flood of money to the midterm elections as super PACs on both sides of the debate seek to influence outcomes.<\/p>\n
Like crypto before it<\/a>, AI is the new technology battleground as pro-innovation and pro-safety groups compete to shape the makeup of the next Congress, and to influence outcomes of some state races.<\/p>\n The spending comes after states have led on AI regulation over the past three years while President Donald Trump has pushed for a federal framework and preemption of \u201ccumbersome\u201d state laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0Trump urges Congress to preempt state AI laws<\/a><\/p>\n AI-focused PACs have raised $107 million and spent $55.5 million in federal races so far this cycle,\u00a0according to tracking<\/a>\u00a0by Tech Influence Watch, a project of technology writer Molly White.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some of the\u00a0biggest spending<\/a>\u00a0has been in congressional contests in Alabama, Kentucky, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n But more than $20 million in AI dollars \u2013 mostly from Meta and Google \u2013 have also flowed to state-level races, according to The Tech Oversight Project, which launched an\u00a0AI super PAC ad library<\/a>\u00a0in June.<\/p>\n The library has cataloged over 175 ads for federal and state candidates as of this month. Most of the ads do not discuss or highlight AI as a campaign issue, researchers say.\u00a0<\/p>\n The state funding has largely focused on Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBig Tech\u2019s AI super PACs are spending a gargantuan amount of money on our elections because they want to write the rules in their favor,\u201d Sacha Haworth, the project\u2019s executive director, said in a June\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0announcing the ad library.\u00a0<\/p>\n Much of the AI money is being spent to elect industry-friendly candidates. But competing super PACs have emerged to bolster pro-regulation candidates.<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0AI regulation sparks super PAC battle in midterm elections<\/a><\/p>\n Among the major players is\u00a0Leading the Future<\/a>, a $140 million pro-AI super PAC network whose\u00a0key funders<\/a>\u00a0include venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI president Greg Brockman.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leading the Future\u00a0mounted an $8 million campaign<\/a>\u00a0to defeat New York Assemblymember\u00a0Alex Bores<\/a>, a Democrat, in his primary bid for a safely Democratic congressional seat. Bores was targeted after he sponsored AI safety legislation, known as the\u00a0RAISE Act<\/a>, which was signed into law last December.<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0Hochul signs AI safety bill<\/a><\/p>\n Three other AI-focused PACs spent a combined nearly $19 million supporting Bores,\u00a0according to<\/a>\u00a0Tech Influence Watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mega-spending turned the crowded Democratic primary in New York\u2019s 12th congressional district into\u00a0national news<\/a>\u00a0and boosted Bores\u2019 profile. He came in a close second in the June primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe result of the race was clearly to show that what was viewed as a minor or latent issue in politics is actually at the forefront,\u201d Bores told Pluribus News.<\/p>\n Leading the Future is mostly supporting and opposing congressional candidates, although it has endorsed 18 Republican state legislative candidates in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cStates play a critical role in getting this right, and we\u2019re proud to champion legislators who are ready to meet that moment,\u201d Zac Moffatt, the PAC\u2019s co-strategist and a former top advisor to Mitt Romney\u2019s presidential campaign,\u00a0told The Hill<\/a>\u00a0in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leading the Future is also dabbling in governor\u2019s races. It\u00a0pledged $5 million<\/a>\u00a0in Florida in support of U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican frontrunner in Florida\u2019s governor\u2019s race. It also spent $800,000 supporting Kansas Senate President\u00a0Ty Masterson<\/a>\u00a0who won the Republican gubernatorial primary last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jesse Hunt, a Leading the Future spokesperson, told Pluribus News that the organization believes AI policy should be handled at the federal level with a national framework that offers protections while fostering innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to maintain all of those things doing it on a state-by-state basis in piecemeal fashion,\u201d Hunt said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0DeSantis pitches consumer protections for AI, data centers<\/a><\/p>\n Meta-funded super PACs are prepared to spend $65 million this cycle in support of pro-AI state-level candidates, including in California, Illinois and Texas,\u00a0according to reporting<\/a>\u00a0by the New York Times. Meta also teamed with Google to create California Leads, a $10 million super PAC to support California legislative candidates, Politico\u00a0reported in January<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Neither Google or Meta responded to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the flip side are pro-AI regulation entities. The largest is\u00a0Public First Action<\/a>, led by former members of Congress Brad Carson, an Oklahoma Democrat, and Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bipartisan 501(c)(4) says it \u201cstrongly supports the work of state and local legislatures to address emerging AI issues and opposes federal efforts to freeze state progress without adequate federal safeguards.\u201d<\/p>\n In June, Public First Action\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that it had raised $80 million, exceeding its initial $50 million goal. Among its chief donors is the AI company Anthropic which\u00a0has contributed<\/a>\u00a0$40 million. Company CEO, Dario Amodei, also contributed $1 million in May,\u00a0according to several reports.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a partisan issue \u2013 it\u2019s about whether we\u2019ll have meaningful oversight of the most powerful technology ever created,\u201d Stewart\u00a0said last November<\/a>\u00a0when the organization was announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n Public First\u2019s\u00a0Jobs and Democracy PAC<\/a>\u00a0spent $13 million supporting Bores in his unsuccessful primary race, according to\u00a0Tech Influence Watch<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last month, Public First Action\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0$15 million to bolster a dozen Republican members of Congress viewed as supportive of \u201cAI security and accountability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Public First has also run ads for Donalds in the Florida governor\u2019s race citing his apparent\u00a0opposition to federal preemption\u00a0<\/a>of state AI laws,\u00a0according to recent reporting<\/a>\u00a0by Politico.<\/p>\n Donalds also recently\u00a0announced federal legislation<\/a>\u00a0to regulate data centers and has\u00a0signaled support<\/a>\u00a0for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019s AI bill of rights, which did not pass this year.<\/p>\n Neither Donalds\u2019 campaign nor Public First Action responded to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n In June,\u00a0two Democratic operatives formed<\/a>\u00a0a new super PAC called\u00a0Guardrails Alliance<\/a>\u00a0to serve as a foil to Leading the Future. Backers include union members, AI safety researchers and progressives, according to the PAC\u2019s website.\u00a0<\/p>\n Guardrails Alliance touts financial support from current and former OpenAI employees as well as John O\u2019Farrell, a former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. It also did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe people who build AI want guardrails. The people who profit from it want immunity. That tells you exactly who Leading the Future is fighting for,\u201d Shaunna Thomas, the PAC\u2019s co-founder, said in a statement last month.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A late entrant, Guardrails Alliance spent $285,000 supporting Bores in the New York congressional primary, according to Tech Influence Watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bores said the lesson of his race is that AI, unlike crypto , is a \u201cbroad issue\u201d that impacts virtually everyone and animates donors and voters alike.<\/p>\n \u201cAmericans want a say in the development of this technology,\u201d Bores said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tug-of-war over artificial intelligence regulation is drawing a flood of money to the midterm elections as super…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,69916,464],"class_list":["post-141702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-pacs","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}