Tech’s Heavy Hitters Are Spending Big to Ensure a Pro-AI Congress

Much of the American public is dubious to neutral when it comes to artificial intelligence. A recent poll found that 71 percent of Americans were concerned about the technology “permanently” displacing human workers.

Since we ostensibly live in a democracy, you’d think that would be bad news for the AI industry; unfortunately, many of the folks who are central to our economy are all-in. What do you do when you can’t win in the court of public opinion?

The next best thing is to work the refs, and that appears to be Silicon Valley’s plan for ensuring the political viability of its golden calf.

Some of tech’s biggest names are injecting $100 million into a newly announced network of political-action committees that will push for stripping AI regulation. Lead the Future, a PAC network that was announced in a press release on Monday, will seek to make America safe for AI. The press release states:

A coalition of leading AI companies and innovators today announced the launch of Leading the Future (LTF), a new national political operation committed to ensuring the United States leads the world in AI innovation, development, and governance. LTF’s mission is to ensure the United States remains the global leader in AI by advancing a clear, high-level policy agenda at the federal and state levels and serving as the political and policy center of gravity for the AI industry.

LTF claims as its allies many tech luminaries, including “Andreessen Horowitz, Greg and Anna Brockman, Ron Conway (SV Angel), Joe Lonsdale (8VC), and Perplexity, with other prominent firms and individuals from across the tech and investment sectors expected to join in the coming weeks,” the press release states.

“There is a vast force out there that’s looking to slow down AI deployment, prevent the American worker from benefiting from the U.S. leading in global innovation and job creation, and erect a patchwork of regulation,” Josh Vlasto and Zac Moffatt, the group’s leaders, told the newspaper. “This is the ecosystem that is going to be the counterforce going into next year.”

When reached for comment by Gizmodo, Lead the Future referred us to the previously circulated press release.

Increasingly, Silicon Valley is one of the biggest political donors in the nation. The cryptocurrency industry poured money into the U.S. presidential election last fall and came out the other side with a POTUS intent on making America the “crypto capital of the world,” and a Congress that’s eager to sign anything to make it happen.

Then there’s Elon Musk, who spent nearly $300 million all by himself just to get Trump in the door. The business world clearly sees super-soaking lawmakers with bundles of cash as the winning formula, so why wouldn’t the AI industry and its proponents jump on the bandwagon?