SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley investor and Democratic donor Ron Conway is launching a new initiative to influence national policy on artificial intelligence, putting former Obama press secretary Jay Carney in charge of the effort. Project Blueprint, created through Conway’s San Francisco-based investment firm SV Angel, is intended to serve as a link between AI companies and policymakers ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Carney will lead the project in his new role as SV Angel’s general partner and head of public policy and communications. The initiative comes as technology policy has become a major political battleground during President Donald Trump’s second term. Republican-aligned technology investors, including Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, and White House adviser David Sacks have played prominent roles in shaping the administration’s approach to AI. Project Blueprint’s organizers say they want to develop policies that can survive changes in political power and draw input from multiple parts of the industry, including major AI laboratories, open-source developers and data-infrastructure companies. The group’s stated priorities include maintaining U.S. competitiveness with China, improving cybersecurity, strengthening protections for young people and addressing job losses linked to automation. The group also plans to examine how profits from AI should be distributed. Its policy outline describes the construction of U.S. data centers as important to the industry’s growth while acknowledging that higher electricity bills and environmental concerns are “real and growing.” “The concerns driving debate around AI are legitimate,” the project’s background materials say, arguing that public opposition should not simply be dismissed as misinformation. Carney said AI would reshape society more than any innovation in his lifetime and that effective policy should balance technological development with security. He said the goal should be for Americans to benefit from the transformation rather than feel excluded from it. Carney left the White House in 2014 and has since held senior policy and communications positions at Amazon and Airbnb. His appointment gives Project Blueprint a leader with experience in both government communications and the technology industry. The initiative’s ties to Conway, one of the Democratic Party’s major technology donors, are likely to shape how its claims of political independence are received. Jason Elliott, a technology policy consultant and former adviser to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the debate would benefit from a wider range of perspectives, particularly as the administration’s approach and calls to halt or slow AI development have intensified. For California, where the AI industry’s expansion is driving demand for data centers and electricity, the project’s focus on energy costs, sustainability and public safeguards could affect debates well beyond Washington. Its influence will ultimately depend on whether lawmakers and communities view it as a broad public-interest effort or another vehicle for powerful technology and political networks to shape the rules governing the industry.