“All of the money in the world, trillions and trillions of dollars, probably will not move public opinion on this very much if it's coming from big tech and their friends. Because the American people don't trust them. … They're being told by the companies, AI is going to replace you, it's going to take your job. … And then they're being told this could actually wipe out humanity. This could kill you. So why would anybody support this other than they financially have a stake in it?”
Doom Debates! · AI Research & Frontier Labs · November 2026
Context
Asked whether the AI industry's money leaves the safety side fighting uphill, Brendan concedes the funding gap but argues big-tech money is politically toxic with voters.
Transcript
…this election is going to show that AI safety and security matters and that the American people want it and that the candidates that were not for that are not going to do well in this election. And unfortunately, that may be the hard lesson that people have to learn so we can get on the right path.
…That's how a democratic government works, fortunately. But from your perspective, in the short term, you do agree that the money side is skewed toward the AI companies just because they have an unprecedented amount of money, so you feel like you're fighting an uphill battle in terms of funding?
…to compete, although we've noticed that some of these groups like Leading the Future, this big super PAC that has support from big tech, they're starting to basically just turn the spigots off because it's so politically toxic. And Greg Brockman, of course, decided against putting another $25 million into that super PAC because it is so toxic. And so... I think that the good news for us is that all of the money in the world, trillions and trillions of dollars, probably will not move public opinion on this very much if it's coming from big tech and their friends. Because the American people don't trust them. They have certain values that are rock solid that are not going to change. They can see the writing on the wall. They're being told by the companies, AI is going to replace you. It's going to take your job. They're seeing that it's getting their kids addicted. We have mental health issues with children because of AI. It's kind of making a negative impact on education in this country so far. And…
Nice. All right. Well, that's great to hear that you feel that way, because I did detect a shift where Democrats were using it as their political wedge. And I certainly hope that Republicans fully close that gap and it just becomes a unified apolitical cause. You know, I'm doing my part. You guys…
Well, it's interesting because, as I mentioned, when Brendan took on this role, I really tried to look at it and evaluate, like, where can I be helpful? And so I actually participated in a fellowship with GovAI, where I studied the landscape of AI safety organizations to figure out exactly that…
Your faith -based outreach, are you focusing on a particular faith or is it like interfaith or Buddhist part of this? So who's the coalition?
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