Episode Details
Back to EpisodesPivot News AI Briefing — Jun 29, 2026
Episode 180
Published 2 months ago
Description
Hosts: James & Maya
In this episode:
• Hi, I'm Maya, and today we start with the most expensive AI election yet — and the candidate who won it, then turned on his funders.
• Right. Micah Lasher took New York's 12th district. Anthropic and OpenAI spent a combined $27 million through super PACs to shape that race.
• And in his victory speech, Lasher rejected both companies and pledged to regulate them. So the money bought attention, not loyalty.
• Here's why this changes everything for AI companies wading into politics. Direct election spending can now backfire in public.
• Worth noting the caveats here. It's one race. But the lesson is clear — candidates who take tech money may need to publicly distance themselves to loo...
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