Silicon Valley Pours $100 Million-Plus Into AI Politics as Super PACs Target Regulation
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 11
Silicon Valley Pours $100 Million-Plus Into AI Politics as Super PACs Target Regulation
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 11
Summary
Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing from Silicon Valley into US Super PACs ahead of the midterms to elect candidates aligned with a deregulatory AI agenda.
Leading the Future, backed by donors including OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and Palantir co-founder Jo Lonsdale, is focused on identifying and boosting “pro-AI candidates.”
$6 million from that group funded ads against New York lawmaker Alex Bores, an early state-level AI regulator; the campaign attacked his progressive record rather than his AI stance, and he later lost a close primary.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week added a public case for light-touch rules in a 6,500-word essay arguing heavy regulation could leave the US behind in AI.
Union-backed Guardrails Alliance and bipartisan opposition to datacentres are emerging as counterweights, but the spending push is already shaping how far US oversight of new AI models may go.
Are multi-million dollar campaigns for open AI actually a calculated move by corporations to dodge legal accountability for future technological harms?
As tech giants push for unrestricted AI, will the massive environmental cost of data centers become the ultimate roadblock to their vision?