Political groups tied to OpenAI and Anthropic have turned a single New York congressional primary into a proxy war over how the U.S. should regulate AI, according to the Associated Press. A PAC funded by OpenAI investors and executives, Leading the Future, spent $7.6M attacking Democratic Assemblyman Alex Bores, who wrote New York's RAISE Act, one of the strictest state AI-safety laws in the country. Groups partly funded by Anthropic have spent more than $10M boosting Bores, with Anthropic investor Chris Larsen pledging another $3.5M, though one pro-Bores PAC said it raised $30M from outside groups before Anthropic's $20M contribution and rejects being cast as an Anthropic tool. Bores frames the fight as ideology rather than one company versus another, while rivals in the June 23 primary call him a pawn in an OpenAI-Anthropic battle.
