Leading the Future, the pro-AI super PAC backed by Greg Brockman, appears to be linked to multiple sockpuppet accounts, including a purported anti-AI activist
Leading the Future was launched as a well-funded pro-AI political network, with backing connected to a16z and Greg Brockman, and later reported raising more than $125M to influence midterm politics and federal AI regulation. Its emergence also prompted reports of a separate PAC network intended to support candidates favoring stronger AI rules.
The alleged account links arrive as OpenAI has said it did not donate to super PACs and characterized Brockman’s support as personal. That separation makes the PAC’s public-facing conduct consequential both for its own political credibility and for the reputational boundary around its prominent backers.
First-order effects
The allegation places Leading the Future’s online advocacy under immediate credibility and transparency scrutiny, particularly if accounts presented as independent critics or supporters were coordinated by the PAC.
Brockman’s association with the group faces greater reputational exposure, while OpenAI’s stated non-involvement becomes a more important distinction for the company.
Second-order effects
Organizations backing AI regulation can use the controversy to challenge the legitimacy of industry-funded political messaging and sharpen contrasts with the pro-AI PAC.
The episode may make funders, candidates, and allied advocates more attentive to provenance and disclosure around ostensibly grassroots social-media campaigns tied to political groups.
Third-order effects
If similar allegations recur, AI-policy campaigning could face a durable trust problem: large, well-funded PACs may have to demonstrate clearer separation between paid, coordinated, and organic advocacy to retain influence.
The broader AI-regulation contest is increasingly likely to be fought not only through donations and endorsements, but through scrutiny of how political narratives are manufactured and attributed online.
The trend: This is one data point in the professionalization of AI-policy politics, where rapidly growing PAC funding is bringing campaign-style influence operations—and corresponding accountability pressures—into the fight over AI rules.
As OAI tries to distance itself from LTF, another notable fact from the @TaylorLorenz and @TheMidasProj investigation: Of the sock puppet accounts, which don't have tons of followers, who else but OAI's Chief Strategy Officer! You don't just stumble on these accounts! [image]
It appears the OpenAI-a16z super PAC has now stooped so low as to create a sockpuppet account claiming to be an anti-AI doomer saying various violent/unhinged/discrediting things. This false flag behavior is not normal politics
LTF declined to comment when asked about this new round of astroturfing allegations. But a reminder that when Taylor Lorenz asked them about a prior round of astroturfing, they said “we'll continue... using every tool at our disposal.” [image]
.@tyler_johnston and I uncovered two Leading the Future/BAAI linked meme accounts that have been attempting to shape the conversation around AI. Read our full story!
My hope is that, moving forward, Leading The Future will do their part to combat this and help foster a genuinely productive conversation on AI. The stakes are too high for anything else!
On Monday, OpenAI put out a statement disavowing any connection to the PAC. I find this argument uncompelling, in part because I don't think DC will care whether it's OpenAI or its President threatening to end political careers over AI regulation. https://x.com/...
Circumstantial evidence suggests that the company Memelord is running two anonymous accounts that are closely aligned with Leading the Future. One account attacks the PAC's critics, while the other impersonates them to make their opposition look deranged. [image]
A few months ago, I found an anonymous sockpuppet account linked to the OpenAI/a16z super PAC. Now, @TaylorLorenz and I have uncovered two more — and they're even more brazen than the first. https://x.com/...