AI Execs Trying to Buy Congress – The Wednesday AM Quickie 9/30/26
Immigration officials say they provide great healthcare to people in their concentration camps. But even the federal government’s own data shows that’s a lie, as I reported today. That’s it from me. Corey is back tomorrow. -Whitney
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THE BIG NEWS
Artificial Intelligence Execs Trying to Buy Congress
Executives at Anthropic and OpenAI have spent millions of dollars in this year’s election cycle on both Democratic and Republican candidates alike, the New York Times found, an attempt to hedge their bets and control the government regardless of which party is in power. They are funneling their money via two super PACs. Anthropic is using one called Public First, while OpenAI is using Leading the Future.
Those two super PACs have together spent $72.6 million on four other super PACs. Anthropic’s Public First sent money to a Democratic PAC called Jobs and Democracy and a Republican PAC called Defending our Values; OpenAI’s Leading the Future sent money to the Democratic Think Big and the Republican American Mission.
Those four super PACs have in turn spent $52.6 million on 17 Democratic and 25 Republican contests – candidates “who align with [AI executives’] agendas, helped defeat those they see as hostile to it and integrated themselves with front-runners who are likely to be in positions of power in the next Congress to make decisions critical to their bottom lines.” The shell game is hard to follow on purpose because AI executives do not want people to understand how they are funding candidates.
Anthropic and OpenAI have also spent heavily on campaign advertising, most of which never mentions artificial intelligence or the widely-loathed data centers that enable it. In 95 ads bought by the four super PACs, just seven mention AI or an AI company. None mention data centers. Per the Times:
An ad for Representative Barry Moore, Republican of Alabama, featured the phrase “CHAMPION AMERICAN INNOVATION” as he shook hands with firefighters in a garage — one of several A.I.-backed advertisements that used that phrase over images of workplaces that appeared to have nothing to do with artificial intelligence.
Another was in support of former Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., a Democrat running for an open House seat in Illinois. It was paid for by Think Big, which is aligned with OpenAI, and praised him as committed to reducing gun violence and supporting law enforcement.
And in some instances, both the Republican and Democratic groups funded by the same big A.I. player created advertisements advocating opposing sides of an issue.
The Times used as an example two ads funded by Anthropic-aligned super PACs. One praises Trump’s mass deportation agenda while the other opposes it. The Times found the four super PACs spent more on Democrats than Republicans “and that the candidate they backed almost always won” their primary. The story ended with a warning from the communications director for Justice Democrats, who cautioned that the industry’s political spending is just as difficult to track as spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“There was a time where I could tell you every Israel lobby super PAC, and I cannot tell you that anymore because there’s so many pop-up PACs, there’s so many shell PACs, there’s so many pass-throughs,” said Usamah Andrabi. “And I think the same thing is happening with the A.I. lobby.”
Meanwhile, in case you were wondering what side Trump is on, ‘ol boy launched a government chatbot at America.gov. Have fun.
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
Climate Collapse: Eight Dead in Bangkok Floods
- ‘Life Threatening’ Hurricane Polo Hits Mexico The category 2 hurricane made landfall yesterday with flash flooding and winds up to 110 miles per hour; it is expected to dump up to 12 inches of rain on Baja California Sur and may bring floods to the US Southwest later this week. via the AP.
- ‘Extreme’ El Niño Brings Fear of ‘Kelvin Wave’ Ocean Phenomenon, Could Raise Sea Level Along California By a Foot “Kelvin waves are not like crashing waves at the beach. They are planetary in scale, spanning thousands of miles. And when a Kelvin wave kicks off, it brings with it an untold amount of warm water that slowly moves from the western Pacific, along the equator, towards South, Central and North America.” via the Guardian and Inside Climate News.
- United Nations Warns of Dwindling Time to Restore Essential Forests Forest restoration should be a priority for governments around the world, the UN said, because there’s a “narrowing window” to restore them in time to ensure food security and resistance to the ongoing climate catastrophe. via the Guardian.
- Compromised Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Recuses Himself in Major Climate Collapse Lawsuit Because He Owns Stock in ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 He has no reported ties to the oil major in the case, Suncor Energy, but he is besties with Paul Singer, founder of a hedge fund that backs Suncor. They’re so close that they even took a secret luxury fishing trip together in 2023, which Alito tried to conceal. via the NYT.
Hackers Steal Trove of Sensitive Personal Data from Kash Patel’s FBI as Revenge for Public Advisory Against Them
The hack is “one of the worst breaches of sensitive government information,” the New York Times and Politico reported, and included the home addresses and Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of current and former agency employees, as well as “sensitive job assignments.” The agency still doesn’t know the extent of the damage. The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the theft. Per the Times:
In announcing its hack, ShinyHunters, believed to be a loose collective of young hackers operating across the globe, said it had targeted the F.B.I. as retribution for a public advisory the bureau had issued in the spring, warning that the group was known to harass victims and family members with threatening or coercive maneuvers. In their note, the hackers demanded that the F.B.I. “correct or simply REMOVE” the advisory or risk further consequences.
In an email to The Times on Friday, ShinyHunters said that the bureau had until the end of Tuesday to fulfill its request, even as the hackers themselves appeared to acknowledge that the bureau was unlikely to acquiesce.
Then they issued a new statement saying that they never intended to publish the data, and that the whole thing is a “marketing campaign to protect our business.”
In other embarrassing FBI news, agency officials fired a pair of counterterrorism agents because they didn’t act fast enough to find and punish whoever left allegedly harassing phone messages for Stephen Miller’s podcaster wife, Bloomberg Law reported. Stephen and Katie Miller already live in military housing. But apparently they need more protection paid for by US taxpayers.
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- US, Russia Collude to Weaken Global AI Weaponry Agreement At the United Nations earlier this month, diplomats from both nations removed “a range of provisions designed to safeguard the use of artificial intelligence in weapons” from a global treaty on lethal autonomous weapons, including a provision that required “humans review military targets developed by AI before a strike.” via the Washington Post.
- US Bans Canadian Booze, Dairy, Molasses, Motorcycles, Whey Protein The banned items come in addition to the tariffs on about $1 billion worth of goods, which also went into effect on Tuesday. via the NYT and NBC News.
- Deeply Unpopular Trump Announces $15 Billion Iowa Steel Plant Backed by Indian Conglomerate Mesabi Metallics, owned by multibillion-dollar Indian company Essar Group, is proposing to build one of the biggest mills in the US, “with an initial annual production of 7.5 million tons.” via the WSJ.
- Toddler of Michigan Police Officer Pulled Out Loaded Gun at Daycare No one was hurt because a staff member intervened. “And had that not happened, I do not know where we would be right now or what kind of conversation I would be having,” said Canton Township Police Chief Joseph Bialy; a parent who is a police officer in a neighboring jurisdiction was taken into custody. via the AP.
SOME NUMBER
$1.5 million
That’s how much taxpayers have spent so far on Trump’s illegal “love me” propaganda campaign, which he refers to as public service announcements. Even Republican lawmakers are calling foul.
ON THE SHOW TODAY
9/30: Sam is hosting solo today. His guests are Hunter Dunn, organizer and national press coordinator for the 50501 Movement, on to discuss the upcoming No Kings: Vote Early national day of action on October 17; and Peter Elkind, author and reporter covering government and business at ProPublica, discussing his piece, “The Untold Origins of Trump's Plan to Sharply Restrict Mail-In Voting.”
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
Dr. Oz Can't Even Lie Right
Check out the great Nancy J. Altman’s book, “The Road to Medicare for All: A Call to Action.”
Why Are These People So Obsessed With Hasan Piker???
There’s too much psychology going on to make sense of it.
PARTING WORDS
“There is a hole in the ship, and we are bailing it as fast as we can, but no one is patching the hole.”
– Tom Murphy, a vice president at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. A Washington Post reporter interviewed him for a story about municipal spending on services for unhoused people after the paper found that 12 US cities had increased their spending by 75 percent. Murphy pointed out the flaw in analyzing that data alone: “Until we are making investments to actually keep people in their homes … it’s incomplete to simply analyze how much we are spending on people already homeless.”
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