GUEST ROOM | Cornell, Help Send Alex Bores ’13 to Congress

Eric Yachbes is a rising senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at ezy6@cornell.edu.

It's a strange time to be a student. ChatGPT launched in the fall before I started at Cornell; one of my friends’ professors said it would be impossible for AI to ever do original math. Two weeks ago, an AI model disproved an 80 year-old unsolved conjecture in discrete geometry. I've watched this leap happen over the span of a single undergraduate degree.

I study computer science and math, and I work on AI: I am an avid user of ChatGPT and Claude, do AI research in the Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and spent last summer working on using reinforcement learning to train AI agents at a startup in San Francisco. I am optimistic about how AI can help us solve problems across science, human health and more, and attain enormous improvements to our quality of life.

However, I'm also scared, and I suspect many of you are too. AI progress is on an exponential curve and shows no sign of slowing down. It feels like there is no time to adjust to the new ‘normal’; many are extremely uncertain about the future, including myself. When I was in San Francisco, I watched how fast these systems were being built and adopted, and how it seemed like machine learning methods could ‘scale forever.’ This experience made me realize just how much of our future is not in our hands.

Some harms are already here, or nearly here: the effects on teenagers' mental health and the erosion of entry-level jobs, for example. CEO of Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, Dario Amodei has warned that AI could eliminate up to half of entry-level white-collar jobs within a few years. 

My worries don’t stop there: AI can lower the technical barrier for bad actors to conduct civilization-destabilizing cyberattacks and build bioweapons more capable than any we’ve seen before. I also worry about the risks of both extreme power concentration — from either tyrants wielding or a takeover from power-hungry AI — and gradual disempowerment: a world where the majority of economic and political decision-making runs through AI systems and humans lose self-governance.

In addition, there is still no U.S. federal law requiring AI companies to test their systems before release. Without strong representatives willing to fight for it, the public will have almost no say over how this technology reshapes our lives.

So I spend most of my time working on a future with properly integrated AI: I conduct AI safety research and next semester I'll be a co-instructor for Cornell's first AI safety course. I think getting this right may be the most important thing humanity has to do.

If, like me, you want AI to be developed in our best interests, you should vote for Alex Bores ’13 in the June 23 democratic primary.

Alex Bores ’13 is the New York State Assemblymember for the 73rd district, and he is running for Congress in New York's 12th district: a district that includes Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island, Weill Cornell Medicine on the Upper East Side and several thousand households of Cornell alumni across Midtown and the Upper East and West Sides. 

Right after finals, I drove down to New York City and spent a weekend standing on the sidewalk in front of Weill Cornell Medicine, and in Manhattan subway stations, campaigning for Alex. I’ll give the same pitch to you today.

Alex grew up in Manhattan and graduated from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. While at Cornell, he was a student trustee. While president of Cornell Students Against Sweatshops, he helped lead a campaign that pressured Nike into paying $1.54 million in severance to 1800 laid-off Honduran workers. He later studied computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology and worked as an engineer at Palantir Technologies, then quit in 2019 over the company's contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As a state assemblymember, Alex was named the most effective new legislator from New York City by the Center for Effective Lawmaking. He has passed 30 bills and secured more than $50 million for district organizations in 2025. 

Alex also co-authored New York's Responsible AI Safety and Education Act, one of the first laws in the country to require large AI companies to publish safety plans and report serious safety incidents. TIME Magazine named him in its 100 most influential people in AI, and he’s also the first Democrat elected at any level in New York with a degree in computer science.

Big Tech is trying to sabotage his attempts at AI regulation. A super PAC, political action committee, called Leading the Future — funded by the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Palantir Co-Founder Joe Lonsdale and OpenAI President Greg Brockman — has pledged to spend at least $10 million to defeat him, and has already spent $4 million. LTF’s strategy is to spook U.S. politics as a whole, and dissuade anyone who considers regulating AI. A Bores loss would be detrimental to humanity’s grip over AI, showing future congressional candidates that speaking about AI regulation could kill their chances in Congress.

I admire that Alex’s platform leads with affordability and housing and tougher data-privacy protections. Alex cares deeply about the livelihoods of people in Manhattan. His commitment to not only solving the long-term risks of AI, but also tackling problems New Yorkers are facing today is a testament to his character — a blend of strategic forward-looking thinking and authentic compassion.

If you want AI built in the public's interest, vote for Alex Bores '13 in the June 23 Democratic primary. NY-12 is safely Democratic, so the primary will almost certainly decide the seat — and recent polling has shown that the race is extremely tight, so your vote truly matters. Most other candidates are unqualified to tackle the future AI will bring about, but Alex is at the forefront during one of the most decisive times in human history. Your vote has the potential to benefit humanity for generations to come.

Now is the time to take action. Here is how you can help:

1. Check your registration. New York has a closed primary, so you can only vote in it as a registered Democrat. If you're not registered in New York at all (including if you're still registered in your home state), you can register and enroll as a Democrat by June 13. Unfortunately, if you're already registered in New York under no party or another party, the deadline to switch for this primary has already passed. The website ny12.org has registration status, polling sites and early-voting information. Early voting is already open and runs June 13 to June 21; Election Day is June 23.
2. Vote and tell your NY-12 friends to vote. Many of us are in the district — Cornell Tech, Weill Cornell and plenty of Big Red alumni and families. If you live, study or work in NY-12, read up on Alex and consider voting for him. If you know people in the district who haven't heard of him, text them.
3. Do more, if you can. The campaign needs all the canvassers, phone bankers and friend-to-friend organizers we can get! Sign up at alexbores.nyc/get-involved.

I truly believe Alex, our fellow Big Red, can help us face the challenges in front of us. I hope I've made the case well enough to bring you along.

---