Alex Bores is a member of the New York State Assembly representing the 73rd Assembly District in Manhattan and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 12th Congressional District (Source: assembly.state.ny.us) (Source: alexbores.nyc). He was the lead Assembly sponsor of the Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act, a state AI-safety law signed in December 2025 (Source: governor.ny.gov). He has also proposed an "AI dividend" intended to redistribute AI-generated wealth through equity participation in frontier labs and progressive taxation on AI consumption. The OpenAI-backed Leading the Future super PAC has targeted his positioning.
Background
Bores describes himself as a fifth-generation New Yorker who was born and raised in the 12th Congressional District and attended New York City public schools, including Hunter College High School (Source: alexbores.nyc). He holds a degree in computer science and, according to his campaign, is the first Democrat elected in New York State at any level to hold a computer-science degree (Source: alexbores.nyc); his LinkedIn profile lists him as a computer engineer who studied at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Source: linkedin.com).
Before entering elected office, Bores worked as an engineer at the data-analytics company Palantir. According to NOTUS, he is a former Palantir engineer (Source: notus.org); his campaign states that he resigned from a company in protest when it sought to use its technology to target immigrants for deportation (Source: alexbores.nyc).
Roles
Bores serves in the New York State Assembly representing the 73rd District (Source: assembly.state.ny.us). His campaign states that he has passed 30 bills through the State Assembly, on subjects including a ban on hidden "junk" fees, expanded healthcare access, and restrictions on telemarketing scams, and that he secured more than $50.1 million for district organizations in 2025; it also cites recognition by the Center for Effective Lawmaking as the most effective new legislator from New York City (Source: alexbores.nyc). TIME magazine named him to its list of the 100 most influential people in AI (Source: alexbores.nyc).
Bores is running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House in New York's 12th District (Source: ballotpedia.org). According to NOTUS, he is seeking the seat of retiring Representative Jerry Nadler (Source: notus.org).
The RAISE Act
Bores was the Assembly sponsor of the Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act (S6953B / A6453B), co-sponsored with State Senator Andrew Gounardes. The bill passed both houses of the New York State Legislature and, according to the Assembly's announcement, drew bipartisan support (Source: assembly.state.ny.us). Governor Kathy Hochul signed it on December 19, 2025 (Source: governor.ny.gov).
As described in the Assembly's announcement, the RAISE Act applies only to the largest AI developers — companies that have spent over $100 million in computational resources to train advanced models — and requires them to write, publish, and follow safety and security protocols and risk evaluations covering severe risks such as assistance with biological weapons or large-scale automated criminal activity; it requires companies not to release models that create an unreasonable risk of critical harm, requires disclosure of serious incidents (such as theft of a dangerous model or dangerous model behavior), and authorizes the New York State Attorney General to bring civil penalties against large AI companies that fail to meet these standards (Source: assembly.state.ny.us). In the announcement, Bores characterized the law as putting "light-touch requirements on only the largest developers" while keeping "New Yorkers safe," and cited polling that 84% of New Yorkers supported the bill (Source: assembly.state.ny.us). The law is further described as part of a broader state-AI-regulation landscape; see RAISE Act for detailed provisions.
Positions and statements
Bores has unveiled an AI dividend proposal that would redistribute AI-generated wealth via equity participation in frontier labs and apply progressive taxation on AI consumption. The proposal sits in the same conceptual family as broader AI-dividend proposals, including universal basic income variants, Universal Basic Capital, and data-dividend ideas, but differs in proposing equity participation rather than purely tax-and-transfer mechanisms.
He appeared on The Ezra Klein Show on April 22, 2026, where he articulated an AI-disruption thesis centered on the possibility of broad automation, saying: "I would love to understand why you think we're not headed to a world of full automation, because it's tough for me [to know] where that stops once we start on it." (Source: washingtonpost.com)
In an interview with NOTUS, Bores argued that AI regulation need not slow innovation, framing the debate as between "one side saying, 'No one should regulate this at all' and another side saying 'Hey, I want Americans to have a voice in how the most important and fastest-developing technology of our time comes into existence'" (Source: notus.org). He told NOTUS that he expected AI to "get even more salient" as a political issue as it affects jobs, costs tied to data centers, and personal interactions with the technology (Source: notus.org). If elected, he has said he wants to create additional federal safety regulations covering AI development, chatbots, and data centers (Source: notus.org).
Super PAC opposition and support
The OpenAI-backed Leading the Future super PAC has targeted Bores's positioning. According to NOTUS, Bores was the first target of Leading the Future, which released an advertisement against him over his support for AI regulation, and the network — backed by donors including Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman — pledged to spend over $100 million in the 2026 midterm elections (Source: notus.org). Bores's campaign states that three of President Trump's largest donors created a super PAC spending $10 million to oppose him (Source: alexbores.nyc). Bores told NOTUS that the planned spending was "outsized but also unsurprising," describing it as comparable to a venture-capital investment for the backers because "their returns could be trillions" (Source: notus.org).
NOTUS reported that a counterpart network of super PACs called Public First, founded by former Democratic congressman Brad Carson, pledged $50 million to support candidates favoring AI regulation from both parties (Source: notus.org). Carson told NOTUS that the pro-regulation side held an advantage in public sentiment, citing polling that found broad public support for prioritizing AI safety (Source: notus.org).
In the same week as the Ezra Klein appearance, on April 24, 2026, The Midas Project reported that the AI-generated site "The Wire by Acutus" — which publishes articles attacking AI-industry critics — appears to be funded by Leading the Future. (Source: x.com)