thezvi.substack.com/p/the-ai-preference-cascade-reaches

The claim misstates the Echelon Insights poll shown immediately above it.

In the poll's topline, question 45 asks: "Which of the following statements do you agree with more, even if neither is exactly right?" The response options are:

• "AI development should slow down" — 62%
• "AI development should continue at the same pace" — 21%
• "AI development should speed up" — 5%
• Unsure — 12%

So the poll found a clear majority for slowing down AI development, but not "nearly 8 in 10" favoring "slowing or stopping."

Two separate problems make the quoted statement inaccurate:

1. The percentage is wrong. The poll's "slow down" figure is 62%, not anything close to 80%.
2. "Stopping" was not one of the answer choices. The questionnaire offered slow down / same pace / speed up / unsure; it did not measure support for stopping AI development.

Because the source poll itself does not report either part of the claim, readers would be misled about both the size and the nature of public support.

This dollar figure does not match the official Federal Election Commission committee summary for LEADING THE FUTURE.

The FEC's cash summary for the committee, covering activity through June 30, 2026, lists:

• Beginning cash on hand: $0.00
• Ending cash on hand: $31,032,443.45

So the committee was not "sitting on $43 million" on June 30. The official reported amount was about $31.0 million, meaning the article overstates the figure by roughly $12 million.

Because this is a straightforward numerical claim about a public filing, the FEC record is the controlling source.