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The Ezra Klein Show

Why Are Palantir and OpenAI Scared of Alex Bores?

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

News, Government, Society & Culture

4.314.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2026

⏱️ 93 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Leading the Future, a super PAC whose funders include the founders of companies like Palantir and OpenAI, is spending millions of dollars this election cycle, and a considerable amount of that money is going toward attack ads against Alex Bores – even though Bores himself used to work for Palantir. Bores is a New York state assemblyman who is running for Congress to represent New York’s 12th District. His campaign includes an extensive A.I. policy platform, including demands for A.I. companies to be more transparent about safety, and an idea for an “A.I. dividend” that would redistribute some of the profits of A.I. companies to the public. So his race has turned into a central battleground over the future of the A.I. industry and who has the power to shape it. In this conversation, we discuss how Bores went from working for Palantir to running a campaign that would regulate the A.I. industry, the major issues he thinks A.I. policy needs to address, and his response to the attacks against him. Mentioned: Give People Money by Annie Lowrey “Alex Bores’ AI Policy Framework For Congress” “NY Congressional Candidate Faced Palantir Sexual Comments Claim” by Laura Nahmias “AI populism’s warning shots” by Jasmine Sun Book Recommendations: A Theory of Justice by John Rawls World Eaters by Catherine Bracy Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Lori Segal. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our recording engineer is Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Michelle Harris, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Lauren Reddy. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Gregory C. Allen.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The

0:07.0

The If you are living in New York's 12th congressional district, you may have seen these endless attacks on Alex Boris,

0:39.7

one of the Democrats running there. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars building and selling

0:43.9

the tech for ICE, enabling ICE, and powering their deportations while making bank. Now he's running

0:50.4

from his paths. Ice is powered by Boris's tech.

0:55.2

Yikes.

0:57.8

Boris did work for Palantir.

1:01.4

The rest of that attack is not what you might call true.

1:05.1

But what interests me is who is paying for it.

1:09.4

The Super PAC leading the future and its subsidiary, think big.

1:13.1

Who funds the Super PACack leading the future?

1:17.3

Well, among their big donors are co-founders of Open AI,

1:21.5

Andresen Horowitz, and wait for it, Palantir.

1:29.3

So why is a co-founder of Palantir, Joe Lonsdale in this case, funding a Super PAC to try to destroy candidate on the grounds that he once worked for Palantir. The reason is leading the future

1:35.1

is a SuperPact dedicated to destroying anyone who might regulate the tech industry in general,

1:40.6

or AI specifically in a way these funders don't like. And Boris as a member of the New York

1:45.6

State Assembly co-authored and passed the Rays Act, one of the first pieces of AI regulation passed

1:51.9

in any major state. There is a principle here that is much more important than any single congressional

1:58.0

seat. You'll hear it honestly if you just listen to AI founders talk.

2:02.6

They say they believe in it.

2:04.6

Sam Altman, a co-founder of Open AI, who it should be said has been horribly targeted

2:08.6

in recent violent attacks by anti-AI individuals.

...

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