“The Flood, by Anton Leicht” by Austin Chen

Note: I'm crossposting Anton's newest article from his blog. Anton covers AI policy angles in a singular fashion; every article he writes is worth reading, and this one is unusually topical to Manifund. As someone who went on the ground for Bores, I'd like to see us learn & update from past failures; and how could I not love a phrase like "advance market commitment for PACs"? AI safety money could save American AI politics. As it stands, it won’t. Every year, the Nile floods. For thousands of years, the fate of Egypt depended on its ability to absorb these floods: to guide them through irrigation channels and dams, leading them to water the fields along the river. Underprepare, and your crops will wither; reach too greedily, and they will drown. In just a few months, many people who care deeply about AI safety will become very, very rich. Employees at frontier AI developers are a highly idiosyncratic crowd deeply convinced of the singular importance of AI, and they’re about to receive windfalls as their companies go public. Most of them don’t think the American government has been doing a very good job so far. Many might spend their [...] ---Outline:(04:23) The Drowning and the Thirsty(09:19) Irrigation Channels(10:28) An AI Safety PAC in Every Backyard(14:13) I Spent $19 Million On NY-12 And All I Got Was Micah Lasher(18:28) All-In(22:10) Shovels Out The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration. --- First published: July 13th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ibMkRj4mvt5AifY9Z/the-flood-by-anton-leicht --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.