The current state of political spending via super PACs by AI companies.
Noteably, OAI/a16z super PAC reported spending $2m against Alex Boers and $1.1m in support of Jackson Jr (IL-02); Public Fist/Anthropic PAC spent $0.5m in support of Bores and $1m against Jackson Jr.
One of the people clearly signaling their support for the industry. A representative sample from NYT: ‘Mr. Jackson, who went to prison after pleading guilty more than a decade ago to spending $750,000 in campaign money on personal items, said in a statement that he supported A.I. because “underserved communities must not miss another major economic shift. We’ve been left behind too many times.”’
Four years ago, the crypto financier Sam Bankman-Fried spent heavily on primary campaigns. He was later convicted of fraud and his cryptocurrency exchange went into bankruptcy. But at the time, he and his associates said they were directing their spending under the guise of supporting candidates who promised to prioritize pandemic preparedness.
Sure enough, many candidates began to publicly promote pandemic preparedness.
Among them was Jonathan Jackson, a brother of Jesse Jackson Jr., who was running for Congress and posted about the issue extensively just days before a super PAC funded by Mr. Bankman-Fried spent more than $500,000 on his behalf. Jonathan Jackson is now a member of Congress.
Correction: Jobs & Democracy (pro-safety PAC supported by Anthropic) updated their FEC filling saying that they’ve not actually spent anything against Jackson. It’s unclear what happened there.
The current state of political spending via super PACs by AI companies.
Noteably, OAI/a16z super PAC reported spending $2m against Alex Boers and $1.1m in support of Jackson Jr (IL-02); Public Fist/Anthropic PAC spent $0.5m in support of Bores and $1m against Jackson Jr.
Interesting, any idea why Jackson Jr?
One of the people clearly signaling their support for the industry. A representative sample from NYT: ‘Mr. Jackson, who went to prison after pleading guilty more than a decade ago to spending $750,000 in campaign money on personal items, said in a statement that he supported A.I. because “underserved communities must not miss another major economic shift. We’ve been left behind too many times.”’
I find this detail to be particularly good:
Correction: Jobs & Democracy (pro-safety PAC supported by Anthropic) updated their FEC filling saying that they’ve not actually spent anything against Jackson. It’s unclear what happened there.