Alex Bores

About Alex Bores

Alex Bores is a New York State Assemblyman representing the 73rd district and a 2026 candidate for Congress in New York’s 12th district. He holds a master’s degree in computer science and previously worked at Palantir, giving him a rare combination of technical background and legislative experience in the AI policy space.

Bores authored the RAISE Act (Responsible AI Safety and Education Act), which passed the New York State Senate and Assembly in June 2025 and was signed into law in December 2025. The law requires developers of the largest frontier AI models — currently OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Google, and Meta — to publish safety plans and report critical safety incidents. It was the first major AI safety legislation in the United States.

What makes Bores unusual among AI regulators is that he actively uses the technology he’s regulating. He uses Claude Code for policy research, interview preparation, and bill drafting. He has even submitted a pull request to Claude Code’s GitHub repository to improve their iMessage connector’s contact lookup algorithm — making him possibly the only elected official who has contributed code to an AI tool.

Career Highlights

• Elected to New York State Assembly, 73rd district (November 2022)
• Master’s degree in computer science
• Former employee at Palantir Technologies
• Author of the RAISE Act — first major US AI safety law (signed December 2025)
• 2026 candidate for US Congress, New York 12th district
• Released 8-point national AI framework plan (February 2026)

Notable Positions

On AI Regulation vs. Innovation

“Putting a seat belt on the Lamborghini doesn’t really slow down the Lamborghini, but it saves lots of lives.”

Bores argues that safety and innovation are not opposed. He points out that some of the greatest capability advances (RLHF, chain-of-thought reasoning) came from the safety research community. His view: the market overvalues short-term gains and undervalues the fundamental research that makes AI trustworthy long-term.

On the China Argument

“I love this argument because it’s very rarely done in good faith. You ask these people what they feel about export controls and the vast majority of them are against it, in which case you’re not really being serious about the race against China.”

Bores argues that China regulates its AI far more than anything proposed in the Western world — the CCP is “terrified of what an LLM might say.” He sees the China competition argument as largely a cover for companies motivated by profits.

On the Window for Regulation

“I think the reason Leading the Future is willing to spend so much in this election cycle is they know they only have to push it off for a few years before one of the companies gets maybe to AGI, maybe gets to a place where they’re so powerful they can’t be regulated at all.”

He warns that the window for meaningful AI regulation is closing rapidly, and that delay is the industry’s strategy.

Key Quotes

• “Putting a seat belt on the Lamborghini doesn’t really slow down the Lamborghini, but it saves lots of lives.” (on AI regulation)
• “I not only have used Claude Code, I’ve actually edited some of the code and submitted a potential change on GitHub.” (on using AI tools)
• “Anything that you say it’s only so-so at right now, in six months, it’s going to be amazing.” (on AI capabilities)
• “Do the American people get a say, or does it get determined by five CEOs? That’s really the debate of the 2026 election.” (on democratic governance of AI)

Related Reading

• AI Safety - The trend Bores is trying to legislate around
• Knowledge Work Disruption - The economic impact he’s preparing for
• Agents as Employees - The workforce shift driving urgency