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Alex Bores Is Taking On the AI Industry. The Industry Is Spending Millions to Stop Him.
New York Assemblymember Alex Bores is pushing a framework to hold AI developers accountable for damages caused by their technology, as powerful interests pour money into defeating the campaign.
Alex Bores photo from Instagram Account
Someone is spending millions of dollars to make sure AI companies face no consequences if their technology kills people.
That is not a conspiracy theory. That is the fight happening right now in New York.
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Assembly member Alex Bores is pushing a legislative framework that would hold AI developers legally accountable for harm caused by their systems. The opposition to that effort is organized, funded and moving fast.
The core of the debate is straightforward.
Bores says powerful interests want full immunity for AI companies even in scenarios where their models are used to cause mass casualties. His campaign language is direct. He is asking what happens when an AI system is used to kill 100 people or more and the company that built it faces zero legal consequences.
Right now, the answer to that question is uncomfortable.
There is no federal framework governing liability for high-impact AI systems in the United States. Developers operate largely without the kind of accountability structures applied to other industries whose products can cause serious harm.
That gap is exactly what this campaign is targeting.
If you have followed this far, here is why the opposition to this is worth paying attention to.
The money being spent to defeat this framework is not coming from nowhere. AI development is one of the most heavily funded industries in human history right now. The companies building these systems have significant financial and political influence.
A liability framework changes the math on risk entirely. If developers can be held responsible for damages, every deployment decision carries a different weight. That is precisely why the push for immunity exists.
Bores is framing this as a choice between two futures. One where AI oligarchs answer to no one. And one where the same legal standards applied to other powerful industries apply here too.
The debate around AI risk is no longer theoretical. Experts across government, academia and the private sector are actively discussing scenarios where unregulated AI development leads to outcomes that are difficult or impossible to reverse.
Legislation that establishes accountability before those scenarios occur is fundamentally different from legislation written after the fact.
One lawmaker is trying to get ahead of it. The people who benefit from the current absence of rules are spending heavily to keep things exactly as they are.
That spending is itself the clearest possible signal about what is actually at stake here.
Editor's Note: The campaign by Assemblymember Alex Bores reflects a growing urgency around AI governance as lawmakers attempt to establish accountability frameworks before high-impact incidents force the conversation. The outcome of this effort could shape how AI liability is approached across the United States.
