iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

But could there really be a grassroots conservative AI movement under a Republican administration so cozy with the industry? And was Kremer the right one to organize it? www.transformernews.ai/p/the-jan-6-...

transformernews.ai

The Jan 6 organizer getting conservatives riled up about AI

Amy Kremer’s resume makes her loyalty to Trump impossible to question. Humans First is banking that will help mobilize the right

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

The people I saw posting about it were all experienced political operatives, for one. Even stranger, they’d tapped Amy Kremer — a divisive conservative activist best known as a Jan 6 organizer — to lead the group. They said now is the moment for conservatives to stand up to “Big AI.”

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

When I first heard about Humans First, a supposedly grassroots AI safety movement, I was skeptical. 🧵

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

He has returned to being executive director of the Alignment Research Center, an organization he founded in 2021, according to his LinkedIn. As I wrote about last month, CAISI has been struggling with funding and personnel: transformernews.ai/p/caisi-us-ai-agency-governance

transformernews.ai

Making CAISI the AI agency we need

The center has the right expertise, but lacks money, authority and influence

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Per a source familiar, he announced that he would be stepping back internally at CAISI early last month. No reason was given.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Little scooplet: looks like Paul Christiano, once head of AI safety at CAISI, has switched to a part time advisor role. 🧵

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

The problem is, that requires verifying every user's age, and comes with a host of practical and ethical issues. Age verification creates a fragmented internet in the best cases, and risks infringing on constitutional rights in the worst, posing lawmakers with a challenging set of trade-offs.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Taken together, that suggests a significant number of teens are discussing suicide with AI chatbots, not to mention engaging with sexual content, and there’s even more of a risk if those chatbots are manipulative.

transformernews.ai

Child safety vs privacy: AI’s age verification dilemma

There’s good reason to limit how children use chatbots. But the trade-offs might be too costly

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

According to OpenAI, about 0.15% of users in a given week talk about suicide, and according to Pew Research, about two-thirds of teens have used a chatbot.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

There's plenty of reasons to want to keep children away from AI. 🧵

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

The odds seem to tilt against xAI, but the case has legs. Now First Amendment scholars, industry groups, tech safety policy groups and family rights organizations are rallying to stop what some of them see as a potentially catastrophic outcome for AI regulations in the US.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

AI regulations are facing their x-risk moment. The xAI v. Bonta lawsuit threatens a huge chunk of AI regulations - basically anything that requires disclosure.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The federal government's premier technical office for testing frontier AI systems, CAISI, has been sidelined. Luckily, a few proposals to codify it and it's responsibilities, increase funding, and possibly make it it's own independent agency are on the table.

transformernews.ai

Making CAISI the AI agency we need

The center has the right expertise, but lacks money, authority and influence

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Because of a gap in reporting deadlines, the source of the funding does not have to be disclosed until later this month.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

That money was spent on $1m in ads supporting Rutinel and $1m in ads opposing his competitor Shannon Bird. In effect, this allowed Public First to hide from voters that the original source of the funding was an AI group.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

SCOOP: AI safety group Public First spent in the Manny Rutinel race. It just wasn’t disclosed to voters ahead of election day. Transformer has learned $2m was transferred from Public First Action to Latino Victory Fund, which says it exists to mobilize Latino voters and elect Latinos to office.

transformernews.ai

An AI safety group hid its election spending through a Latino-focused PAC

Public First Action routed $2m to support Colorado House candidate Manny Rutinel through Latino Victory Fund — and didn’t publicly announce it ahead of Rutinel’s victory

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Fairshake isn't outright sweeping elections, as most crypto outlets would have you believe. Roughly 2/3 of the races they're involved in aren't competitive. Rather, its strategy may be to *appear* like an 800lb gorilla, rather than always having to be one. broganlaw.substack.com/p/how-much-d...

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

In the end, more than $27m was spent, and it's hard to say whether it had any impact beyond, perhaps, raising the profile of this race. Voters, at least in Manhattan, aren't yet craving an AI safety candidate enough. But they're not entirely deterred by a candidate who opposes the industry, either.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

But they were contending with $8m opposing Bores from a16z/Greg & Anna Brockman/Perplexity etc-funded super PAC Leading the Future. They were also contending with something less concrete: that while AI is rising in salience, it's still not yet a singularly winning issue.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Bores had become an avatar for AI safety, though he was always the underdog, per both polls and prediction markets. Much of the AI safety community had convinced itself his strong message on AI, boosted by more than $19m in supportive electioneering, could turn the tides.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Some analysis from me and @shakeelhashim.com on Bores' defeat in NY-12 last night. Tldr: 🧵

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I was interviewed on an episode of Future Tense Explained to talk about my reporting on OpenAI lobbying/super PACs/Chris Lehane ! www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIby...

youtube.com

Sam Altman's Master Plan to Buy Washington Is Falling Apart

YouTube video by Future Tense

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

A super PAC with a similar name and which shares an officer and contact information with the group has also been terminated. Its only public advocacy work so far seems to be operating an active X account and producing a YouTube video, which as of now has only 15 views.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

With just over $44m spent by AI PACs so far, it was thought that the Innovation Council could seriously tip the scales. Yet with major primaries passed and several more approaching, the group appears to have spent no money on federal elections.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Well, this is weird. 👀 In May, Innovation Council Action made headlines when it said it would be spending $100m to support Trump's AI agenda. The group, blessed by David Sacks, was expected to spend that money backing pro-AI conservatives in the midterms. 🧵

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

OpenAI has been shifting its messaging in light of employee pushback on some of LTF and OpenAI’s own political tactics. More details in Transformer: www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-leh...

transformernews.ai

OpenAI isn’t being consistently candid about Leading the Future

OpenAI insists it doesn’t fund or direct LTF — but one of the super PAC’s operatives describes it as a “corporate funder” with “a say”

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

It omits key details about Lehane’s role in establishing LTF and how super PAC operation’s own staff view their relationship with OpenAI. Lehane is also widely believed to have selected Josh Vlasto to co-lead the group. Even internally, a senior staffer said he sees OpenAI as a “corporate funder”.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

OpenAI has tried to distance itself from Leading the Future in recent weeks, publishing a blog post saying that “OpenAI does not direct the activities of LTF, or have visibility into their operations.” But that post doesn’t tell the full story. 🧵

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

It's a bold choice to pick such a fight, but she says she's watching what's happened in NY and is prepared for there to be a target on her back. More in my latest for @transformernews.ai www.transformernews.ai/p/do-voters-...

transformernews.ai

Do voters care about existential AI risks? One Senate candidate thinks so

Democrat Mallory McMorrow has released an unusually detailed AI agenda. Will it be a vote winner?

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

If her work with those researchers doesn't irritate accelerationists enough, she's practically daring super PAC Leading the Future to enter the race, invoking their name multiple times on the campaign trail though they haven't yet deployed any of their war chest against her.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

That may be in part because she's been meeting with employees at frontier labs and other AI researchers to formulate her ideas.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

She's not only just rolled out an uncharacteristically detailed AI agenda, but is speaking the language of AI safety, warning against the risks of AI as an "existential threat."

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Midterm candidates campaigning on AI is becoming a trend. Take, for example, Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic primary candidate to represent Michigan in the Senate. 🧵

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Hoyle has received almost $300k in support from a LTF affiliated PAC - a nice boost for any political candidate - but can’t lose her pro-labor bona fides either. More details and analysis in my latest: www.transformernews.ai/p/an-oregon-...

transformernews.ai

An Oregon congresswoman distanced herself from Leading the Future — then backtracked

After the AI super PAC endorsed her and two other Democrats, Rep. Val Hoyle went back and forth on whether she was happy with their support

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

AI is becoming a more salient political issue and candidates must be careful how they talk about accepting support from AI PACs (LTF and others).

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I’m not sure what made them change their tune so dramatically, long after the working day was done. But their about face seems symptomatic of a changing political environment.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Suddenly they were more appreciative of LTF’s endorsement, saying that she would “refuse to ignore industry” but wanted to advocate for workers. They sent me a Google doc and I watched them write and rewrite the statement multiple times.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

It was after that that things got weird. Hours after I initially talked to them - but about 7 min after hearing from LTF - Hoyle’s office reached out to ask if they could change their quotes.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Then I reached out to LTF for comment. This is standard practice for reporters, to ensure everyone has a chance to say their piece, They gave me a fairly straightforward statement. Candidates and PACs aren’t legally allowed to coordinate, so I didn’t expect some big, orchestrated response.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Hoyle’s office initially gave me a fairly critical statement distancing themselves from LTF, and I wrote up a simple story. The statement wasn’t that surprising, since Hoyle had vehemently opposed federal preemption of state AI laws before - and LTF likes preemption.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

The PAC is funded by OpenAI president Greg Brockman, venture capital investors Andreessen Horowitz, and others, and their critics claim the PAC is anti-regulation.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Initially I reached out to 3 Dems recently endorsed by super PAC Leading the Future about whether they’d be accepting: Ritchie Torres, Rob Menendez, and Val Hoyle. Seemed like a pretty reasonable question I’d expected they were prepared for, since I was asking 4 days after the announcement.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Have had a very weird past 48 hours. 🧵

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

As I discuss in my latest article for Transformer, pro-AI safety organization Public First Action is no exception — despite the fact that legislation mandating transparency from AI companies is one of their top goals.

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Veronica 💫 @vronirwin.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Super PACs like to keep their donors anonymous through so-called "dark money" groups. Doing so is a fairly common practice in Washington, and allows PACs to avoid the kind transparency that federal elections laws are designed to ensure. 🧵

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