Catherine Bracy is the founder and CEO of TechEquity Action.
For decades, powerful interests like health insurers, utility monopolies and Big Oil have spent millions on California elections and lobbying state legislators. Everyone in Sacramento knows their names, and skeptical voters instinctively look for them in the fine print of campaign advertisements.
But as California has taken a more active role in regulating artificial intelligence, a new force has emerged in political spending: tech and AI corporations with just as many resources as those traditional big-money influencers. That’s why the group I founded is stepping up to give the public a powerful new tool for identifying these companies and the legislators benefiting from their money.
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Spending by Big Tech and the AI industry on elections and lobbying in California has exploded. Last year, these companies burned $39 million on lobbying alone in Sacramento, exceeding even the $34 million that fossil-fuel companies spent the same year. In the June primary, political groups funded by tech and AI executives spent $25 million supporting their preferred legislative candidates; for Nov. 3, they’ve already spent more than $16.5 million. We are tracking every dollar at thetruthabouttechmoney.com, so voters can see the spending for themselves.
If you live in certain parts of the state, you’ve probably been inundated with glossy mailers and ads on your TV and phone. Some seek to boost candidates; others try to tear candidates down. In either case, it’s always worth examining the fine print to see who’s paying for them. In many cases, it’s super PACs funded by tech giants like Google and Meta quietly working to persuade you to vote for the candidates of their choice.
As the leader of an organization committed to ensuring that California’s AI industry develops safely and benefits all Californians, I have seen firsthand how much influence AI and Big Tech money wields behind the scenes in Sacramento.
Golden State staff
This year, TechEquity Action sponsored legislation that would outlaw surveillance pricing, making it illegal for companies to use AI to squeeze consumers based on how much they’ve spent elsewhere. This policy has overwhelming support from people across the state. But that public sentiment wasn’t enough to overcome the millions spent by Big Tech and its lobbying groups, which put enormous pressure on legislators and the governor to kill Assembly Bill 2564.
The bill died when the Assembly failed to pass it before the Aug. 31 legislative deadline, with some lawmakers raising the bogus objection that protecting consumers against AI-driven price gouging would prevent “personalized discounts.” That’s what big money can do, even against the clear will of the people.
Big majorities also favor protecting ratepayers from data centers driving up electricity bills, limits on employers replacing workers with AI and stronger safety checks against the catastrophic risks posed by AI that escapes human control. These are commonsense safeguards Californians expect from any industry this powerful. Fighting for them gets harder every time AI and tech executives pour more cash into the political process.
Golden State staff
Thankfully, our efforts to expose this spending have yielded results. Several legislative candidates have publicly renounced spending from these tech PACs — saying they don’t support unregulated tech or the millions being spent to sway voters, even when it supports their own candidacies. Still, these tech executive-funded groups continue to spend millions every week ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
The decisions legislators make in the next few years will shape how AI touches nearly every part of our lives. A future where AI benefits all of us without destroying livelihoods is possible – but only if the voices of the people, not corporate executives, shape the rules that govern it.
What do you think? Golden State is a public forum. Send your responses for possible publication to forum@golden-state.org.
