Our Tax System Should Make You Furious

Why Are Palantir and OpenAI Scared of Alex Bores?

A New York congressional candidate is pushing a comprehensive AI policy platform—including transparency mandates and an 'AI dividend'—while facing attack ads funded by Palantir and OpenAI founders.

• Alex Bores is running for Congress on a platform that demands greater transparency and safety accountability from AI companies, putting him at odds with industry heavyweights like Palantir and OpenAI.
• His proposed 'AI dividend' would redistribute a share of AI company profits to the public, framing AI governance as a populist economic issue.
• Leading the Future, a super PAC backed by founders of Palantir and OpenAI, is spending heavily on attack ads against Bores, signaling how seriously the AI industry takes the threat of Congressional regulation.
• The episode explores the tension between AI industry self-regulation and democratic oversight, a key debate in the broader AI policy landscape.

Our Tax System Should Make You Furious

Stewart Brand, Silicon Valley’s Favorite Prophet, on Life’s Most Important Principle

Stewart Brand, Silicon Valley philosopher and Whole Earth Catalog creator, discusses AI's potential to reveal truths about humanity and the overlooked cultural importance of maintenance over novelty.

• Brand shares his perspective on what AI will reveal about humanity, touching on the philosophical implications of the technology.
• His new book 'Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One' challenges Silicon Valley's culture of novelty and disposability — relevant to sustainability and design thinking.
• Brand's decades-long influence on tech culture provides rare historical context for understanding how idealism shaped the early internet and modern Silicon Valley.
• The maintenance-over-novelty theme connects to sustainability values, arguing that caring for existing systems and objects is more important than constant innovation.

What We Got Right — and Wrong — in ‘Abundance’

Why Are Palantir and OpenAI Scared of Alex Bores?

A US congressional candidate with a detailed AI policy platform—including transparency mandates and an 'AI dividend'—has become a flashpoint in the political battle over AI regulation, drawing attack ads from Palantir and OpenAI-linked PACs.

• Alex Bores is running for Congress on an extensive AI policy platform that includes demands for greater corporate transparency on AI safety.
• His proposed 'AI dividend' would redistribute a portion of AI company profits back to the public—a populist take on AI's economic impact.
• Palantir and OpenAI founders are funding attack ads against Bores, signaling that AI companies see his candidacy as a genuine regulatory threat.
• The race is framed as a key battleground over who gets to shape AI industry policy in the US.

Stewart Brand, Silicon Valley’s Favorite Prophet, on Life’s Most Important Principle

Stewart Brand, counterculture tech philosopher, discusses AI's potential to reveal truths about humanity and the undervalued importance of maintenance over novelty in modern culture.

• Brand shares his perspective on what AI will reveal about humanity — a rare take from someone who has observed Silicon Valley's entire arc from the 1960s to today.
• The episode touches on society's obsession with novelty and disposability, contrasting with Brand's new book arguing for the cultural and practical value of maintenance — relevant to sustainability thinking.
• Brand's long relationship with technology and the built environment offers a philosophical counterweight to current tech hype cycles.
• His concept of maintenance as a core principle implicitly critiques fast-consumption culture, aligning with sustainability and design longevity themes.