New York state is 3,000 miles from the tech hub of Silicon Valley, but in recent weeks the state has been at the center of a heated debate over artificial intelligence regulation.
A bipartisan super PAC called “Leading the Future” announced last week that it would target Alex Boaz, a Democratic Congressional candidate who promotes the Responsible AI Safety Education (RAISE) Act and has openly defended the AI Safety Act in New York. The bill would require major AI companies to publish safety and risk protocols and to publicly disclose significant safety incidents.
“They don’t want any regulation,” Boas said Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “What they’re saying is that the fact that you dared to step out and resist us means we have to bury you with millions of dollars.”
Leading the Future (LTF) launched in August with more than $100 million in funding and aims to promote “candidates who champion bold, forward-thinking approaches to AI,” according to a release. The group primarily represents the Trump administration’s view that federal AI laws should preempt regulations implemented by specific states, and its efforts are primarily aimed at undermining big blue states like California and New York.
The super PAC is backed by some of the biggest names in the technology industry, including OpenAI President Greg Brockman. Palantir Co-founder Joe Lonsdale, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, and AI startup Perplexity.
“LTF and its affiliates oppose policies that stifle innovation and make it difficult for China to gain global AI advantages or make it difficult for the world to benefit from AI,” the group said in a statement.
Boas has served in the New York State Assembly since 2023 and previously worked at several technology companies, including Palantir. He began campaigning for New York’s 12th District in October after incumbent Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler announced he would not run for re-election.
As a member of Congress, Mr. Boas co-sponsored the RAISE Act.
“I’m very bullish on the power of AI. I’m thinking seriously about what technology companies can do with this in the future,” Boas said Monday. “But the same pathways that make it possible to treat diseases also make it possible, for example, to make biological weapons. So we just want to manage the risk of that possibility.”
Congressman Alex Boas speaks during a press conference on the Climate Superfund Act at Pier 17 on May 26, 2023 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The RAISE Act was passed by the New York State Assembly and Senate in June. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has until the start of the 2026 session to decide whether to sign the bill.
On November 17, LTF leaders Zach Moffat and Josh Brust announced plans to spend millions of dollars to block Boas’ bid for Congress. In a statement, they accused Boas of pushing “ideologically and politically motivated legislation” that would “handcuff” the United States and its ability to lead in AI.
Moffat and Brust told CNBC that the bill is “a clear example of patchwork, ignorant, and bureaucratic state laws that will slow U.S. progress and pave the way for China to win the global race for AI leadership.”
Mr. Moffat has more than 20 years of experience in digital and political strategy, and Mr. Brust previously served as press secretary to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and chief of staff to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Politico first reported on LTF’s efforts targeting Boares.
Boas used the LTF announcement as a fundraising opportunity, asking voters to donate to his campaign if they “don’t want Trump’s mega-donors to write all of their tech policies,” he wrote in a post on X.
“I am a person with a master’s degree in computer science, two patents, and nearly a decade of experience working in the technology industry,” Boas told CNBC in a statement last week. “If people who understand their business are afraid to regulate their business, that’s what they’re telling themselves.”
What is the RAISE method?
The RAISE Act applies to large AI companies such as: google, meta OpenAI has spent more than $100 million in computational resources to train its advanced models.
These companies are required to create, publish, adhere to, and update safety and security protocols as necessary. Violators could be fined up to $30 million.
Companies must also take steps to implement safeguards to prevent their models from causing “serious harm” such as producing chemical weapons or supporting large-scale automated criminal activity. The bill defines “grave harm” as 100 deaths or serious injuries or at least $1 billion in damages.
Under the RAISE Act, major AI companies would no longer be able to release models that create an “unreasonable risk of significant harm.” Boaz said opponents of the bill have railed against that part of the bill.
“This is basically to avoid the problems that we had with the tobacco companies, where they knew that tobacco caused cancer, but they publicly denied it and continued to release their products,” he said.
The RAISE Act would also require AI companies to disclose notable safety incidents. For example, if a model is stolen by a malicious attacker, the developer must disclose the incident within 72 hours of learning of it.
“We just watched Anthropic talk two weeks ago about how China used its model to launch cyberattacks on U.S. government agencies and our chemical manufacturing plants,” Boas said. “Surprisingly, they didn’t have to publish it. I think it should be the law and it should be mandatory for all major AI developers.”
Anthropic, an AI startup valued at about $350 billion in recent investments, published a blog post earlier this month detailing what the company called “the first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack carried out without substantial human intervention.” Anthropic said it believed the attacker was a Chinese state-sponsored group.
Boas told Tech Brew that he drafted an initial version of the bill in August 2024 and sent it to “all major developers” for feedback. He put together a second draft in December and recruited redlines again.
The RAISE Act was promulgated in March and revised in May and June.
“We worked closely with many people in the industry to get the details right,” Boas told Tech Brew.
US President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 22, 2025.
John McDonnell Getty Images
LTF’s decision to target Boas over the RAISE Act is emblematic of the broader debate in the U.S. about whether AI should be regulated at the state or federal level.
Some lawmakers and tech executives argue that the country’s “patchwork” of AI policies stifles innovation and puts the United States at risk of falling behind adversaries such as China. But others, including Boas, say the federal government is moving too slowly to keep up with the rapid pace of AI development.
“The debate right now is whether we should block the states’ progress before the federal government solves the problem, or whether we should actually work together to get the federal government to solve the problem,” Boas said.
Beyond New York, states such as California, Colorado, and Illinois have their own AI laws that have already been enacted or are expected to be enacted early next year.
Last week, President Donald Trump advocated for federal AI standards in a post on his social media site Truth Social.
“Investments in AI are helping make the U.S. economy the ‘hottest’ in the world, but overregulation by countries threatens to undermine this great ‘engine’ of growth,” Trump wrote. “We must have one federal standard, not a patchwork of 50 state regulatory systems, or we will easily be overtaken by China in the AI race.”
The White House has also begun drafting an executive order to target state AI laws by launching legal challenges and withholding federal funds, CNBC reported Thursday. But the next day, the Trump administration put the effort on hold, according to a Reuters report.
The White House has not commented on the matter.
Earlier this year, an amendment to President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act would have enacted a 10-year moratorium on state-level AI laws. The provision ultimately failed and was not included in the bill, but the Trump administration recently revived the effort.
The White House is considering whether a moratorium on AI laws in certain states could be included in one of the major must-pass bills moving forward in Congress.
“What we’re seeing with AI is natural. Countries are stepping up and moving quickly,” Boas said. “Ultimately we should have a federal AI standard. I strongly agree with that.”
WATCH: AI industry-backed super PAC chooses first target
