The War Chest

Somewhere in Silicon Valley, a group of the most powerful people in technology decided that one state assemblyman from New York had to go. And they were willing to spend $125 million to make it happen.

Alex Bores doesn't look like the kind of person who keeps billionaires up at night. He's a New York State Assemblyman who authored the state's first major AI safety law. Now he's running for Congress. And the AI industry has decided he's the line in the sand.

The super PAC targeting Bores counts OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman, Andreessen Horowitz, and Palantir's Joe Lonsdale among its backers. Their goal isn't subtle.

"They've made clear they want to make an example here, that if they win this race, they're going to go to every member of Congress and say, don't you dare regulate AI, otherwise we'll spend $10 million against you."

That's Bores himself, speaking to CNBC. He doesn't sound scared. He sounds like he understands exactly what's happening.

The Safety Pledges Are Dissolving

Here's what makes this week so remarkable: it's not just about politics. The companies that built their entire brands on AI safety are quietly dismantling their own guardrails.

Anthropic — the AI safety company, founded specifically because its creators thought OpenAI wasn't being careful enough — just replaced its core safety commitments with what it calls "nonbinding, publicly declared targets." Read that again. Nonbinding.

The company's explanation? Competitors were racing ahead without the same restrictions. In other words: we'd love to be responsible, but not if it means losing.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is running ads. Sam Altman once said the company would only monetize advertising "as a last resort." Apparently we've reached the last resort.

And researchers at both companies have been quietly resigning in recent weeks, warning about the risks of what's being built.

The Third Inflection

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang put a frame around all of this when he told CNBC this week:

"AI just went through its third inflection. Now, with these agentic systems, we're having these agents able to reason, take tasks, and actually do work."

In the first two months of 2026 alone, AI has triggered an indiscriminate sell-off across sectors — software, legal, insurance, cybersecurity stocks all taking hits as investors realize these systems aren't chatbots anymore. They're workers.

And the faster the technology accelerates, the faster the safety nets are coming off. Not because anyone decided safety doesn't matter — but because the competitive pressure makes caution feel like a luxury.

Running Out of Time

Bores is still in the fight. His AI safety law in New York was a first. His Congressional campaign could be a turning point — or a cautionary tale about what happens when you try to regulate an industry that can write nine-figure checks.

"This is moving very, very quickly. I still think there's a lot of great steps that we can and should take right now, but absolutely, we are running out of time."

He might be the last politician willing to say that out loud. If the super PAC gets its way, he might also be the last one who tries.