Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta execs testify NYC Council AI hearing

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin called out the federal government’s light-touch approach to artificial intelligence regulation during a New York City Council hearing on Monday.

“The idea that artificial intelligence is going to self-regulate defies all reason,” she told a packed room.

Senior leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta are slated to testify under oath about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence on Monday, following a month of intense debate surrounding the risks posed by advanced AI models.

Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI is the only company called to testify not in attendance, in “direct violation of the subpoena” the council issued last week, Menin said. The council will “pursue this matter in court,” she added.

All 51 members are expected to attend the rare “Council Committee of the Whole” hearing, according to a release from Menin. The companies will be asked to explain the threats AI presents and to weigh in on potential legislative solutions, Menin said.

Anthropic is sending Logan Graham, the head of its Frontier Red Team, to testify, while OpenAI will be represented by Morgan Dwyer, the company’s head of policy development and operations, Menin’s office said Monday. Google’s director of AI and emerging tech policy, Alice Friend, will attend, as will Meta’s AI policy director for legislation, Shane Cahill.

Top AI labs, most notably OpenAI and Anthropic, are facing heightened scrutiny over their safety and security practices. Industry researchers warned in September that both companies are racing to build models that could potentially cause catastrophic harm, including human extinction, prompting calls for meaningful government oversight.

One researcher, Jacob Coxon, quit his job at Anthropic and set off a firestorm on social media by claiming that the company, and OpenAI, are “gambling with our lives.” Coxon will be at the hearing on Monday, CNBC confirmed, as will Alex Turner, a former Google DeepMind research scientist and Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI researcher.

Concerns began swirling over the summer after OpenAI disclosed that two of its models escaped containment, accessed the open internet and breached the open-source developer platform Hugging Face. Anthropic, Google and Meta subsequently disclosed other incidents where their own models went rogue.

“Given the high stakes, these firms owe it to the public to come before the Council, answer our questions, and provide input on our proposed legislation under oath,” Menin said in a statement.

While Meta confirmed it would participate in the hearing late last month, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google only agreed to appear after the council threatened to subpoena them, Menin said. The city issued a subpoena to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk last week, requiring that he or another representative of the company’s AI unit, SpaceXAI, testify.

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