SpaceX has agreed to testify before the New York City Council this week as part of a legislative investigation concerning artificial intelligence safety risks, the council announced on Tuesday.
The council said in a press release that the hearing will take place on Friday at 10 a.m. ET in front of its tech committee. Julie Menin, council speaker, and Nwamaka Ejebe, general counsel, issued a subpoena to Elon Musk and SpaceX’s AI unit on Sept. 28, compelling testimony for a hearing that took place last week.
Representatives from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta all testified at the hearing on Oct. 5, but SpaceX did not appear. Menin said in Tuesday’s statement that SpaceX agreed two days later to testify after the council said it intended to have its subpoena enforced by a judge.
“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,” Menin said in Tuesday’s release. “Conspicuously absent was SpaceXAI, which is unacceptable.”
Musk folded his AI venture, xAI, into SpaceX in February, creating a conglomerate that includes its Grok models, which are used by some federal agencies, including the Pentagon. SpaceX went public in June and is now valued at over $2 trillion. In August, SpaceX also completed a $60 billion acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor.
SpaceX competes with Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI market, though Grok trails far behind models from top rivals. The NYC council opened its investigation following a month of intense debate surrounding the risks posed by advanced AI models.
In its original letter ordering testimony from Musk or another SpaceX leader, the council said its investigation would help, “assess whether fast-emerging risks to public safety, cybersecurity, economic stability, privacy, consumers and businesses warrant immediate legislative action to protect New Yorkers.”
SpaceX’s “failure to comply” with the subpoena, the council warned, could subject the company to penalties or other punishment under New York City laws and regulations.
Carmen De La Rosa, chair of the tech committee, told CNBC in a statement that the council expects answers from SpaceX.
“With the proliferation of Elon Musk’s technology at the federal level, it is even more important they come to the discussion with robust context about data privacy, safeguards, and whistleblower protections,” she said.
Lawsuits are piling up against SpaceX after Grok’s image generator enabled mass production and distribution of deepfake porn based on images of real people who did consent.
SpaceX didn’t respond to a request for comment.
— CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed reporting.
WATCH: Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and Google execs testify at NYC Council meeting
