Full Breakdown
SpaceXAI Agrees to Testify Before New York City Council on AI Safety
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event
SpaceX’s artificial-intelligence unit, SpaceXAI, has consented to appear before the New York City Council’s Technology Committee after being subpoenaed. The hearing is set for Friday, with council leaders indicating that failure to appear could trigger penalties under city law. Representatives from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta testified at a prior, nearly ten-hour session, but SpaceXAI was absent, prompting the council to enforce the subpoena.
Background and Legislative Context
The council launched its investigation after a month of intense public debate over the risks of advanced AI models, including concerns about cybersecurity, privacy, economic stability and potential misuse. In February, Elon Musk folded his AI venture xAI into SpaceX, creating a conglomerate that now markets the Grok models, some of which are used by federal agencies such as the Pentagon. SpaceX went public in June and is valued at over $2 trillion; in August it completed a $60 billion acquisition of the AI-coding startup Cursor. Lawsuits have accumulated against SpaceXAI after Grok’s image generator was used to produce deep-fake porn involving non-consenting individuals.
Official Statements & Responses
Council Speaker Julie Menin said the company’s earlier absence was “unacceptable” and emphasized that self-regulation alone is insufficient. She asserted that New Yorkers deserve direct answers about the safeguards SpaceXAI is implementing and how the firm will be held accountable if those safeguards fail. Council counsel Nwamaka Ejebe issued the subpoena and warned that the city would seek judicial enforcement if SpaceXAI did not comply. Carmen De La Rosa, chair of the tech committee, echoed the expectation that SpaceXAI will provide substantive answers to the council’s inquiries.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Last Monday, we held a major, hours-long hearing with whistleblowers, the world's largest tech companies, and the nation's foremost experts in AI,” — Julie Menin
- “New Yorkers and the public at large deserve to hear directly from the companies developing this powerful technology about the safeguards they are putting in place to protect people from harm and how they will be held accountable when those safeguards fail,” — Julie Menin
- “AI needs to be safe around our world,” — Jess Asato
- “On the current path, I think it is more likely than not that humanity loses control to these AIs, and it could end in human extinction,” — Jacob Coxon, former Anthropic researcher