Who's really running AI? Inside the billion-dollar battle over regulation, with Alex Bores

The Pentagon is playing chicken with Anthropic (techcrunch.com/2026/02/24/anthropic-wont-budge…) over who gets to control how the military uses AI while communities across the country are blocking data center construction (techcrunch.com/2026/02/25/the-public-oppositio…). As the AI debate has been flattened to “doomers versus boomers,” one state legislator is attempting to walk a middle road.

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity (techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity) podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Alex Bores, New York Assembly member and congressional candidate. Bores sponsored New York's first-of-its-kind AI safety law the RAISE Act — and quickly became the target of a Silicon Valley super PAC with $125 million to spend (techcrunch.com/2025/08/25/silicon-valley-is-po…) on attack ads.

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

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The dueling super PACs (techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/anthropic-funded-gro…) now fighting over AI's future, and why Anthropic's $20 million bet on the pro-regulation side matters.

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What the RAISE Act actually requires (techcrunch.com/2025/12/20/new-york-governor-ka…), why it's being called the blueprint for AI regulation nationwide.

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Whether AI regulation ends up looking like finance and biotech or goes the way of social media — largely unregulated until the damage is done.

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What's coming next from Bores’ office: bills on training data disclosure, content provenance, and a 43-point national AI framework.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube (youtube.com/@TechCrunch),Apple Podcasts (itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780),Overcast (overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity),Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?s…) and all the casts. You also can follow Equity onX (twitter.com/EquityPod) andThreads (threads.net/@equitypod), at @EquityPod.

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