AI backers wanted a knockout win in New York. Now they’re clamming up.

So the grand plan was to crush a single state assemblyman to prove the AI lobby's electoral might. Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC with more cash than common sense, poured a fortune into defeating New York Assembly member Alex Bores, a Democrat who presumably had the temerity to question the industry's unregulated expansion. The result? Bores won, and the PAC has since gone radio silent — no statements, no concession, no appetite for any further races. It's the political equivalent of a startup burning through its Series A and then declaring it's 'pivoting to stealth mode.'

You have to admire the discipline, really. Most losing campaigns issue a gracious concession, a hint of defiance, even a vague threat to return. But Leading the Future has clammed up so thoroughly that it's almost as if they hope the entire affair will be forgotten if they just don't talk about it. The name itself — 'Leading the Future' — now reads as unintentionally ironic, given that the group's only known electoral foray went down in flames and left them unwilling to say a single word about it. One imagines their donors are thrilled: nothing says return on investment like your super PAC losing to a state assemblyman and then pretending it never happened.

For the rest of us, this silence is instructive. It reveals that even with virtually unlimited money, AI's political allies can still lose when they underestimate the voters' attachment to local representation. But don't mistake this for a permanent retreat. The AI industry has deep pockets and a long memory; they'll be back, perhaps with a more sophisticated strategy and an even bigger war chest. For now, they're licking their wounds and hoping no one asks about the millions they just torched. Enjoy the quiet, New York — it won't last.