Alex Bores knows AI from the inside. He built software at Palantir Technologies, the data-analytics firm backed by Peter Thiel. Now a New York assemblymember and Democratic candidate for Congress in the 12th district, he’s pitching a plan to make sure everyday Americans get a cut of AI’s gains. His ‘AI Dividend’ would trigger direct payments if the technology wipes out jobs on a massive scale. Axios broke the story on April 20, 2026.
Bores frames it as insurance. “You don’t take out fire insurance because you expect your house to burn down—you have insurance in case something goes awry,” he told Axios. AI leaders keep warning of labor upheaval. Sam Altman of OpenAI has said the tech will “eliminate a lot of current jobs.” Anthropic’s Dario Amodei sees a potential ‘nightmare’ where millions lag behind explosive growth. Elon Musk predicts work becomes optional. Bores’ memo argues past innovations created jobs. AI aims different—to replace them all. Government must act before displacement hits.
The plan activates on hard metrics. Sustained drops in labor participation. Wage squeezes in key sectors. Productivity booms without employment gains. Funds flow then: direct checks to citizens. Money for retraining. Cash to build AI oversight. Not handouts. A stake in the boom. As the policy memo puts it: “If AI dramatically increases productivity and concentrates wealth, the American people have a stake in those gains.”
How to pay for it? Three ways. First, a token tax—a small levy on AI compute usage, scaled to adoption. Second, equity warrants in top AI outfits. These out-of-the-money options only cash in if firms skyrocket, sharing upside without early drag. Third, tax tweaks. Cut breaks for AI that kills jobs. Tax rising AI output, not shrinking payrolls. “Taxing the thing that is growing, AI, rather than the thing that is shrinking, wages, is simply sound fiscal management,” the memo states, per Gizmodo.
From Palantir Code to Policy Frontlines
Bores didn’t stumble into this. He holds a computer science master’s. At Palantir from around 2015 to 2019, he helped agencies wrangle data—tracking bad loans for the Justice Department, netting $20 billion in settlements. Labor roots run deep; his undergrad focused on industrial relations, and he fought Nike over worker pay as a teen. But he quit Palantir over its ICE contract renewal. No guardrails for deportations. Principle over paycheck. Details in a Wired podcast.
In Albany, he co-authored the RAISE Act. New York’s 2025 law hits big AI players—those with massive models and $500 million revenue. They must publish safety plans, report incidents, face state scrutiny. First major state AI rules. Trump targeted it with an executive order. Bores calls federal efforts ‘nonexistent.’ “The catastrophic risks are real,” he said in Wired. Labor hits could poison politics worse.
Big Tech fights back hard. Super PAC Leading the Future, funded by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, Andreessen Horowitz, and Perplexity, has dumped millions on attack ads. They paint Bores as a hypocrite for his Palantir past—claiming he built ICE tech for deportations. He didn’t; he opposed it. The PAC, per a New York Times opinion piece on April 21, aims to crush regulators. Why Palantir money against an ex-employee? Bores threatens their free rein.
Voters sense the shift. Polls show 67% think AI destroys more jobs than it makes, per Marist. Another 79% worry there’s no worker safety net. Bores’ pitch taps that. “The AI Dividend is about expanding freedom and choice,” he said, via Gizmodo. Room to reskill. Care for family. Launch ventures. Or just survive.
But challenges loom. AI firms cry foul. Token taxes hit margins. Warrants dilute founders eventually. Tax shifts crimp investment. Bores challenges them: support it or admit the hype’s hollow. “If they can support this plan, that would show that they actually believe in what they’re putting out there,” he told Axios. “If they’re not doing it, then I think it shows that they’re really putting window dressing out there.”
Slashdot lit up with debate, echoing its April 20 post. Users see UBI echoes, like Andrew Yang’s run. Skeptics question enforcement. Enthusiasts demand action against ‘corporate greed.’ On X, Bores announced it himself: direct link.
This isn’t isolated. AI job fears fuel midterms. Amazon cut 16,000 this year alone. Entry-level white-collar roles vanish first. Bores bets his district—Manhattan and Brooklyn—will back safeguards over unchecked acceleration. Tech’s poured $125 million into anti-regulation PACs. But public polls tilt wary. If his plan gains traction, it could redefine how Washington taxes the next boom. Or fizzle amid donor barrages.
One thing clear. AI’s labor threat forces choices. Share the pie. Or watch it shrink for most. Bores, the insider turned critic, just threw down the gauntlet.
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