The AI giants just turned an unknown state legislator into the most famous AI regulator in America by trying to destroy him.
The Summary
- Anthropic and OpenAI are dumping millions into a New York congressional primary to either destroy or prop up Alex Bores, a state assemblyman who wrote AI safety legislation
- OpenAI-backed super PAC "Leading the Future" (also funded by Palantir and a16z) has spent millions attacking Bores since late 2025
- The backlash effect: an obscure politician nobody knew now represents AI regulation itself
The Signal
Alex Bores was nobody. A New York state assemblyman representing the Upper East Side. Then he wrote AI safety legislation, and OpenAI decided to make an example of him.
Leading the Future, the super PAC bankrolled by OpenAI, Palantir, and Andreessen Horowitz executives, has been running attack ads against Bores since late 2025. The goal was obvious: kill his congressional run before he could bring his regulatory ideas to Washington. Show every other politician what happens when you touch the AI industry's third rail.
"The real winner of their feud may be the guy they're currently fighting over."
It backfired spectacularly. Anthropic, OpenAI's chief rival, saw an opening. If OpenAI was spending millions to kill this guy, he must be doing something right on AI safety. So Anthropic started backing Bores. Now we have dueling AI labs spending millions on opposite sides of a single congressional primary in Manhattan.
The tech policy version of a proxy war, except:
- The weapons are super PAC dollars
- The battlefield is NY-12
- The winner gets to write the narrative on AI regulation for the next decade
Here's what makes this story matter beyond one race. Bores wasn't a threat before this started. He was a state-level politician with a bill most people outside Albany had never heard of. OpenAI's decision to go nuclear on him transformed him from "guy with an idea" to "the regulator Big AI fears most."
Classic Streisand effect, but with higher stakes. Every dollar spent attacking him validates his regulatory stance. Every attack ad is free proof that the AI industry thinks his ideas are dangerous to their business model. Which makes those ideas look a lot more credible to voters who already distrust Big Tech.
The Implication
This is the template now. AI companies just showed the entire political class how to become relevant on tech policy: write a bill that scares them enough to spend against you. The attention is worth more than the opposition.
Watch for more politicians to follow Bores' playbook. Write aggressive AI safety legislation. Wait for the industry to overreact. Use their opposition as credibility. It's the rare case where getting attacked by deep pockets makes you stronger, not weaker. The AI industry just created the incentive structure for a generation of AI safety politicians.