Technology

EXCLUSIVE: AI Super PAC Launches First Ads Of General Election Backing Senate Republicans

Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour

A well-funded pro-AI super PAC is launching its first ad campaign of the general election season to boost Senate Republican candidates, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC funded by major AI companies and OpenAI President Greg Brockman, as well as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, will launch a $2 million investment that would boost key Senate Republican candidates, including Louisiana Republican Julia Letlow, Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy-Hyde-Smith, South Carolina Republican Darline Graham and South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds. Leading the Future expects more general election investments in the coming weeks.

“Our new investment reflects the growing importance of the AI policy debate in America. We have an enormous opportunity to continue leading the world in AI by embracing innovation and advancing responsible policies that protect workers, families, and communities,” Zac Moffatt, the co-strategist for Leading the Future, said in a statement to the DCNF. “We believe each of these candidates will help shape a strong, thoughtful national framework that keeps America competitive, expands economic opportunity, and delivers on those priorities.”

Leading the Future’s ads will air on Wednesday, September 17 and the ad campaign will include broadcast, cable, streaming/digital, texting and mail. The pro-super PAC has raised more than $140 million for the midterm elections, according to Reuters.

American Mission, the GOP super PAC for Leading the Future, launched one highlighting Graham’s three decades of public service and efforts to lower costs.

“Darline Graham’s not a politician. She’s a public servant. Before Washington, Darline spent nearly 30 years helping South Carolinians at the Department of Employment and Workforce, at vocational rehabilitation, helping people find a job, provide for a family. Then she took over a struggling state agency and turned it around. Now, she’s in the Senate fighting to keep more of what you earn,” the narrator said in the ad in support of Graham.

“Darline Graham, 30 years of service over self,” the narrator concludes in the ad.

Leading the Future’s announcement follow as polling found that Americans increasingly sour on artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers.

Roughly two-thirds of Americans see AI as a moderate risk that may end up destroying humanity and half favor a pause, according to a Politico poll released Wednesday.

However, many GOP voters see the need for America to lead on the burgeoning technology.

Fifty percent of Trump 2024 voters said that America should not fall behind other countries on AI, even when considering the potential safety risks of advanced models, per the Politico poll.

Data centers and AI have become a focal point that may hamper Republican’s chance of reelection.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) warned in an August memo to AI companies that Americans’ dislike could cost Republican Ohio Sen. John Husted’s reelection as he remains in a “dead heat” due to Brown’s anti-data center messaging.

“Data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck. If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one,” the NRSC wrote in the memo.

“If voters’ perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio,” the NRSC memo added, calling on AI companies to help fix negative perceptions about data centers.