Competing super PACs backed by the AI industry are already pouring money into the 2026 midterms, starting with the year’s first primaries in Texas and North Carolina. There’s just one thing missing from their ads so far: any reference to artificial intelligence. The groups are seeking to shape how AI models and companies are regulated nationwide, a debate that big players in AI see as existential for the future of the industry, the United States and the world. But instead of the actual policy reason they are taking sides in these primaries, the groups are leaning into red meat or progressive messaging on other hot-button issues. It’s a tactic also used by groups in other areas. But the early AI-backed spending on ads about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, President Donald Trump, health care and more is especially notable because of the dramatic scale of change AI titans expect their product to bring to the American workforce and society.…