The titans of artificial intelligence have fired the first shot in a regulation battle that is poised to dominate the 2026 midterms , and the industry’s prospects for victory are already looking good.

On Thursday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul gutted a bill intended to put modest AI protections in place, hours before President Donald Trump issued an executive order intended to stamp out state laws like the one Hochul is now seeking to weaken.

Hochul’s apparent capitulation to the AI industry came just a day after the AI industry PAC Leading the Future — which boasts a $100 million slush fund bankrolled by OpenAI President Greg Brockman and the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, among others — released its first ad of the 2026 cycle, attacking New York Assemblyman Alex

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