AI安全团体不买账OpenAI首席执行官萨姆·奥特曼在中期选举政治支出问题上的立场转变。
AI safety groups aren't buying OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s shifting stance on political spending in the midterms.
他们对奥特曼的让步持怀疑态度，即来自行业立场一致的团体（如与OpenAI立场一致的“引领未来”超级政治行动委员会）的竞选资金可能无意中适得其反。相反，他们正在推动更强有力的承诺，以削减资金洪流——并要求候选人拒绝来自支持AI团体的任何支持。
They’re wary of his concession that campaign cash from industry-aligned groups, like the OpenAI-aligned Leading the Future super PAC, may have inadvertently backfired. Instead, they’re pushing for stronger commitments to downsize the flood of money — and for candidates to reject any support from pro-AI groups.
“除非他们真这么做，否则我不会相信他们真的在改变策略，或者说是目标，”纽约州民主党众议员亚历克斯·博雷斯表示，在“引领未来”和其他团体花费800万美元击败他的众议院竞选活动后，他成为AI监管倡导者中的关键声音。他上个月发起了一项3000万美元的计划，旨在统一民主党在AI政策上的立场。
“I won’t believe that they are actually changing their strategy, or their goals I should say, unless and until they do,” said Democratic New York assemblymember Alex Bores, who emerged as a key voice among AI regulation advocates after Leading the Future and other groups spent $8 million to tank his House campaign. He launched a $30 million effort to unify Democrats on AI policy last month.
奥特曼向《政治客》的坦率承认，是在《纽约时报》报道之后作出的，该报道披露OpenAI总裁格雷格·布罗克曼今年夏天早些时候退出了向“引领未来”注资的计划，称该超级政治行动委员会的努力是公司使命的“干扰”。这一暂停值得注意，因为美国人对技术风险的焦虑日益加剧，立法者正争相摸索如何应对这项新兴技术。
Altman’s stark acknowledgement to POLITICO follows a New York Times report that revealed OpenAI President Greg Brockman backed out of injecting more cash into Leading the Future earlier this summer, calling the super PAC’s efforts a “distraction” from the company’s mission. The pause is notable as Americans grow increasingly anxious about the risks the technology poses, and lawmakers scramble to figure out how to approach the emerging tech.
尽管如此，一些批评者并不将奥特曼的让步或布罗克曼的撤资视为行业竞选策略发生根本性转变的迹象——至少目前还不是。
Still, some critics are not taking Altman’s concession or Brockman’s pullback as a sign of a fundamental change in the industry’s campaign strategy — at least not yet.
“在我看来，这意味着他们不再——特别是格雷格·布罗克曼——资助‘引领未来’（Leading the Future）了，”博雷斯说。“这是否意味着行业不再会花费数亿美元试图影响政策、为自己谋利？不。”
“What I read it as is they are no longer — or Greg Brockman in particular is not — going to fund Leading the Future,” said Bores. “Does that mean that the industry is not going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to influence policy and get benefits on their way? No.”
博雷斯坚持认为，候选人在接受‘引领未来’的资金支持前应三思：“无论哪党的民选官员，若收受‘引领未来’的资金，都应受到极大的怀疑。”护栏联盟政治总监查理·布莱特勒表示赞同，称OpenAI领导层决定与‘引领未来’划清界限，应成为该组织支持的民主党人的最后一根稻草。
Bores insisted that candidates should think twice before accepting financial support from Leading the Future specifically: “An elected official of either party taking money from Leading the Future should be viewed with incredible suspect.”Guardrails Alliance political director Charlie Blaettler agreed, saying OpenAI leadership deciding to distance themselves from Leading the Future should be the final straw for Democrats backed by the group.
“如果对山姆·奥特曼和格雷格·布罗克曼来说太有毒了，为什么民主党人还在收他们的钱？”他问道。
“If it’s too toxic for Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, why are Democrats still taking their money?” he said.
根据联邦选举委员会数据，‘引领未来’与竞争对手超级政治行动委员会网络‘公众优先’——该组织主张AI监管，主要由OpenAI竞争对手Anthropic资助——本周期通过超级政治行动委员会共花费超过7000万美元。
Leading the Future and rival super PAC network Public First — which advocates for AI regulation and is largely funded by OpenAI competitor Anthropic — together spent over $70 million through super PACs this cycle, according to FEC data.
其他主张监管的倡导者也投入了自己的政治资金，像护栏联盟——一个于6月成立的非营利组织和超级政治行动委员会——筹集了500万美元，并花费数十万美元支持博雷斯。护栏联盟部分资金来自OpenAI员工，他们反对‘引领未来’，后者主要由OpenAI总裁布罗克曼、其妻子安娜、OpenAI早期投资者马克·安德森和本·霍洛维茨及其风投公司a16z资助。他们合计向‘引领未来’捐款7500万美元。‘引领未来’和a16z拒绝置评。
Other pro-regulation advocates have jumped in with their own political spending, with groups like the Guardrails Alliance — a nonprofit and super PAC that launched in June — raising $5 million and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Bores. Some of Guardrails Alliance’s money came from OpenAI employees pushing back against Leading the Future, which is funded in large part by OpenAI president Brockman, his wife Anna, early OpenAI investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and their venture capital firm a16z. They have contributed a combined $75 million to Leading the Future. Leading the Future and a16z declined to comment.
一些在初选中获得‘引领未来’支持的民主党人——如纽约州众议员里奇·托雷斯、乔·莫雷尔和佛罗里达州众议员贾里德·莫斯科维茨——拒绝表态是否会摒弃助其胜选的‘引领未来’资金。
Some Democrats who were backed in their primaries by Leading the Future — like Reps. Ritchie Torres and Joe Morelle of New York and Jared Moskowitz of Florida — declined to say whether they would disavow the Leading the Future cash that boosted them in their races.
“一个外部的人工智能政治行动委员会在初选期间在第四选区花钱，但他们没有直接向我的竞选活动捐款，”众议员瓦尔·霍伊尔（俄勒冈州民主党人），他在给POLITICO的一份声明中表示，他得到了Leading the Future近30万美元的投资的支持。
“An outside AI PAC spent money in the 4th district during the primary, but they didn’t donate directly to my campaign,” Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), who was backed by a nearly $300,000 investment from Leading the Future, said in a statement to POLITICO.
她没有提及是否会否认该组织及其支出：“我一直在与劳工领袖和倡导者合作，在人工智能方面将工人放在第一位。我们需要明确的联邦护栏来保护工人、保卫我们的地球、防止公用事业费率飙升并让消费者有发言权。”即使候选人决定进一步远离该行业的支出，一些支持护栏的倡导者表示，像奥尔特曼这样的人物仍然有责任完全阻止或大幅减少资金流入。
She did not address whether she would disavow the group and its spending: “I’ve been working with labor leaders and advocates to put workers first when it comes to AI. We need clear federal guardrails to protect workers, safeguard our planet, prevent utility rate spikes and give consumers a voice.”Even if candidates decide to further distance themselves from the industry’s spending, some pro-guardrails advocates said the onus still lies with figures like Altman to put a stop to — or significantly decrease — the influx of money altogether.
“[奥尔特曼]基本上是在说，‘这些是游戏规则，我无法真正改变它们，这不在我的工作描述中，’”人工智能安全组织安全人工智能行动联盟负责人布伦丹·斯坦豪瑟（Brendan Steinhauser）说。“他当然这么说，但他们可以单方面解除武装，或者鼓励其他实验室停止捐赠，也许这就像在前沿踱步一样--也许人们可以调整政治捐赠的步伐。”
“[Altman was] basically saying, ‘These are the rules of the game, and I can’t really change them, and it’s not in my job description,’” said Brendan Steinhauser, who leads AI safety group The Alliance for Secure AI Action. “Of course he’s saying that, but they could do a unilateral disarmament or encourage the other labs to stop giving, and maybe it’d be just like pacing the frontier — maybe people could pace political giving.”
Public First联合创始人、前民主党众议员布拉德·卡森表示，他愿意与Leading the Future就调整或缩减该行业的政治支出进行谈判，但前提是所谓的人工智能“加速主义者”认真考虑退出。他提到了安德森和霍洛维茨，他们已成为今年中期选举中已知的最大支出者，也是OpenAI的早期投资者。
Former Democratic Rep. Brad Carson, who co-founded Public First, said he would be open to engaging in talks with Leading the Future about pacing or scaling back the industry’s political spending — but only if so-called AI “accelerationists” are serious about backing off. He called out Andreessen and Horowitz who have emerged as the biggest known spenders in this year’s midterm elections and were early investors in OpenAI.
“只要这些加速主义者有意愿花费数千万甚至数亿美元，就可能需要组建一个‘公共第一’团队,”卡森表示，他同时领导非营利组织“美国负责任创新促进会”。“所以即使布罗克曼退出，安德森和霍洛维茨也可以再投入5000万美元，如果他们愿意的话，我可不想在这方面毫无还手之力。”
“As long as these accelerationists have a desire to spend tens and tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, there is probably a need for a Public First,” said Carson, who also leads the nonprofit group Americans for Responsible Innovation. “So even if Brockman drops out, Andreessen and Horowitz can just drop another 50 million if they felt like it, and I wouldn’t want to be disarmed against that.”