After skipping a nearly ten-hour hearing on AI safety, the company faced enforcement in state court and then agreed to appear before the Committee on Technology, joining OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta in the grand New York tradition of being yelled at politely
You Have Been Summoned
CITY HALL. Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI agreed to testify before the New York City Council after a subpoena standoff, according to amNY’s report on SpaceXAI agreeing to testify before the City Council. Council Speaker Julie Menin first sought voluntary testimony in September from five major AI companies. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta agreed to appear. SpaceXAI did not, and Menin subpoenaed the company on September 28. When it skipped the Council’s nearly ten-hour hearing on October 5, Menin said from the dais that it was in direct violation of the subpoena and that the Council was pursuing enforcement in court. The company then requested a meeting with Council officials on October 7 and agreed to testify before the Committee on Technology on Friday at 10 a.m.
The episode marks a historic moment in the relationship between Silicon Valley and the five boroughs. A company that builds rockets capable of reaching orbit and artificial intelligence that can write sonnets has learned the one lesson every New York landlord, restaurant owner and parking violator eventually learns: when the City Council wants to see you, it will see you.
Conspicuously Absent
Menin’s statement captured the mood. Conspicuously absent was SpaceXAI, which is unacceptable, she said, adding that New Yorkers and the public at large deserve to hear directly from the companies developing this powerful technology. The phrase conspicuously absent has been used in New York politics for generations, usually about developers, utility executives and the occasional borough president, but rarely about a company whose founder also wants to colonise Mars.
A veteran City Hall reporter said the dynamic was familiar. Every year, some powerful entity thinks it can skip a Council hearing, she said. A landlord. A cable company. A sanitation contractor. Eventually they all show up, sit at the little table, pour themselves a glass of water and get asked very long questions by council members who have prepared opening statements of considerable length. The robots are not exempt. Nobody is exempt.
The Ten-Hour Hearing
The October 5 hearing lasted nearly ten hours, a duration that New Yorkers who have attended community board meetings will recognise as merely a warm-up. According to amNY, the four companies that did appear offered few clear answers. None gave a number for the likelihood of a catastrophic AI event, and they largely did not commit to shelving a model that failed an independent safety review. Lawmakers plan to ask SpaceXAI how it assesses catastrophic risks, what would stop it from releasing a model that raised safety concerns, and who should be responsible if an AI system causes serious harm.
A Brooklyn resident who watched part of the livestream said she had found it riveting. I watched the most advanced technology companies in the world sit at a folding table and get questioned like a landlord who forgot to fix the boiler, she said. It was the most New York thing I have ever seen. I kept waiting for someone to ask about their mother’s printer. Honestly, it would have been relevant.
The Legislative Agenda
The Council is considering rules that would require outside validation of certain AI systems, human kill switches, incentives for whistleblowers and a private right of action for some AI-related harms. Whether a city council can effectively regulate a global technology is a question that lawyers, academics and technology executives will debate at length. New York has a long history of acting first on issues that eventually become national debates, from smoking bans to calorie labels on menus, and members appear eager to add AI safety to that list.
A technology policy researcher in Manhattan said the approach was ambitious. A city regulating frontier AI is unusual, he said. But New York is not a normal city. It has the population of a medium-sized country, the economy of a large one and the attitude of a very small, very angry one. If any city council was going to subpoena an AI company, it was always going to be this one.
The Kill Switch Question
Of all the proposals, the human kill switch has captured public imagination most. New Yorkers, who are accustomed to systems that fail, approve of the idea in principle. A subway conductor on the A line said he liked the concept. Every system needs an off button, he said. My train has one. My microwave has one. My brother-in-law does not have one, and you see how that goes at Thanksgiving. If the AI companies want to build something smarter than all of us, they can build an off button. That is not a lot to ask.
Testimony Day
The Council had not said who would testify for the company, prompting speculation across the city about who might take the seat at the witness table. Some hoped for a senior executive. Others hoped for Musk himself. A few New Yorkers proposed that the company simply send its chatbot, on the theory that it could answer questions faster and with fewer pauses. A City Hall regular, asked about the possibility, laughed. We have a lot of rules, she said. We have rules for the rules. We are not going to cross-examine a laptop. Not this year, anyway.
The New York Way
For all the comedy, the episode reflects a serious debate about who should oversee powerful technologies and how. Federal and state governments are still working out their approaches, and local officials argue that their residents will feel the effects of AI in jobs, housing, policing, education and public services. Whatever happens to the proposed bills, the standoff has established that the Council’s subpoena power applies to companies whatever their size or ambition.
The Last Word
Outside City Hall, a food cart vendor who has watched decades of officials, protesters and executives come and go said he was looking forward to the testimony. Everybody comes eventually, he said. Mayors. Billionaires. Now the robot companies. They come, they sit, they get yelled at, they buy a pretzel on the way out. I have sold pretzels to everybody. I would like to sell one to an AI company. I will even give them a discount. Ten percent. Because I am also afraid of the robots.