‘Give the American people a say in how AI develops’: Alex Bores launches a $30 million nonprofit bent on regulating AI

Former Palantir engineer-turned New York state Assemblymember Alex Bores knows Americans want AI regulation.

He co-authored the RAISE Act, New York’s frontier AI safety law.

He ran this year for Rep.

Jerry Nadler’s open congressional seat on that platform, even as many of his donors came from within the AI industry.

But that didn’t stop Leading the Future, a super PAC funded in part by OpenAI president Greg Brockman and Andreessen Horowitz, from spending more than $7.6 million against him over that law.

Public First Action, with $20 million from Anthropic, spent on the race in Bores’ corner.

Total outside money in the race topped $40 million , the most expensive House primary of the cycle.

Bores still lost.

That loss helped lead to Who Decides, the nonprofit Bores launched on Tuesday with his former chief of staff, Anna Myers.

So far, it has raised $10 million and aims to raise $20 million more in 2027, for a $30 million total ahead of 2028.

Bores intends the nonprofit to unite the AI advocacy organizations Democrats already trust, help them build out their own agendas rather than hand them one, and establish “a shared floor of an agenda on things that we all want to see good done.” “Give the American people a say in how AI develops,” Bores told Fortune.

“Most voters have an answer key in their head for every question that they ask” on issues like Medicare or the Green New Deal.

But with AI, Bores said, even the messaging lives in this gray area.

“We’re in this limited time where it’s not even just the answers that are up for grabs, but even the questions that are being asked are up for grabs.” The RAISE Act, which New York Gov.