Patrick Longton

When Alex Bores ran for Congress in June, he liked to point out that if he won, he would be one of the only members of the House with a computer-science degree. He has become known for talking about the possible harms of AI, but he often discusses the benefits, too. “I want AI that helps doctors diagnose disease instead of AI that allows health-insurance companies to deny claims,” he told David Freedlander. “This is a really potentially powerful tool, and we are on the cusp of having access to knowledge and power that we never had before.” Bores ended up losing the primary to Micah Lasher, but in the process, he became perhaps the most preeminent voice for AI safety. He is now launching an audacious campaign to push the field of 2028 Democratic presidential candidates to take on a new breed of corporate oligarch and write the rules for the most pivotal technology of the 21st century. “I want to make AI safety not like Medicare for All or ‘Abolish ICE,’ where half the people running are for it and half the people running are against it. I want to make it like marriage equality or being pro-choice, where if you’re a Democrat, of course you believe in AI safety,” says Bores. Read Freedlander on Bores’s plan to keep presidential contenders focused on AI safety: nymag.visitlink.me/PZcbaO