Silicon Valley Group Launches PACs to Resist Strict AI Regulation

A Silicon Valley group has launched a new network of Political Action Committees (PACs) and organizations that will support candidates who advocate against strict artificial intelligence (AI) regulations amid calls from some lawmakers to apply guardrails to the rapidly evolving technology.

Unveiled on Aug. 25, Leading the Future is a new super-PAC network that supports “the creation of enduring infrastructure and momentum that ensures AI leadership remains a central focus in U.S. politics to advance good AI policy,” according to its website.

The group said it is working to advance a “positive forward-looking agenda for AI innovation” at both the state and federal levels by “proactively engaging in the political process by identifying, maintaining, and growing pro-AI candidates.”

In an X post announcing the network’s launch, Leading the Future said its affiliated organizations will actively oppose policies that limit innovation, “enable China to gain global AI superiority,” or make it harder to “bring AI’s benefits to the world,” it said.

Among those helping launch and support Leading the Future are venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife Anna, and veteran angel investor Ron Conway.

Andreessen Horowitz’s head of government affairs, Collin McCune, said the firm is becoming “more active in supporting pro-technology candidates across the country.”

“Policymakers in Washington and our state capitals are weighing thousands of proposals right now that could make it impossible to build. The only way to counter entrenched interests and outdated thinking is to make sure builders have a voice at the table,” McCune wrote on X.

Leading the Future’s efforts also seek to sideline an influential coalition in the tech community that has been advocating for strict AI regulation from Congress to counteract potential harms from generative AI chatbots and the existential threat of a super-AI that breaks from human control.

Some states, including California, are proposing legislation to implement safeguards in generative AI and protect children from the potential harms of chatbots.

Character.AI, which created a popular AI chatbot companion app, is facing a lawsuit after its bot allegedly encouraged a 14-year-old user to commit suicide.

“Our children are not lab rats for tech companies to experiment on at the cost of their mental health,” said state Sen. Steve Padilla, who introduced such legislation in California. 

“We need common-sense protections for chatbot users to prevent developers from employing strategies that they know to be addictive and predatory.”

Marc Andreessen, the billionaire co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, has called the AI regulation efforts in Washington “doomer astroturf.”

Andreessen has contributed more than $3 million in political donations so far this year, according to Federal Election Commission filings, including hundreds of thousands in congressional contributions, and $2.5 million to Make America Great Again (MAGA) Inc. in March.

MAGA Inc. is a super-PAC that supports President Donald Trump.

Andreessen also contributed to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), the top Republican in the House of Representatives, and two super PACs—Grow the Majority and the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund—designed to clinch congressional majorities for the Republicans and Democrats, respectively.

Brockman co-founded OpenAI with CEO Sam Altman and others and now serves as one of the company’s top executives. OpenAI is the maker of popular generative AI chatbot ChatGPT.