Exclusive | AI safety doomers pouring cash into Minnesotas Senate race for Sanders-backed lefty Peggy Flanagan

Silicon Valley-based AI safety “doomers” have waded into Minnesota’s US Senate race with thousands of dollars’ worth of donations to Democrat Peggy Flanagan – a Sen.Bernie Sanders-backed candidate who has called AI an “existential threat” to humanity, The Post has learned.Flanagan, the current lieutenant governor of Minnesota, is facing off against Republican challenger Michelle Tafoya for retiring Democratic Sen.

Tina Smith’s seat.The race, currently rated as a toss-up by RealClearPolitics, is poised to help determine which party wins a razor-thin majority in the Senate – at a time when lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are wrestling over how the AI industry should be regulated.The far-left Flanagan, who is endorsed by AI doomsayers like Sanders of Vermont and Sen.

Elizabeth Warren of Massachusets, received at least $41,000 in donations from 12 individuals who work in the AI industry between July 13 and Aug.12, according to campaign finance records reviewed by The Post.Local GOP officials allege that a win for Flanagan – who said in an interview last month that she was “concerned about the catastrophic nature of AI” – would add another voice in the Senate that would try to hamstring AI development with burdensome regulations.

Her ally Sanders, for example, has called for a government-ordered pause of advanced AI development.“Peggy Flanagan is a socialist doomer who wants to kill innovation and give China the upper hand by pushing effective altruism dogma and fighting alongside the likes of Bernie Sanders to unleash crippling government regulations on artificial intelligence,” said Nick Puglia, regional press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.On the campaign trail, Flanagan has taken a critical stance toward tech.She made headlines over the summer for accusing a super PAC supporting her centrist primary opponent Angie Craig of “using an AI deepfake of me to mislead voters.”Flanagan said in an interv...