Oct. 5 (UPI) — The New York City Council is holding a hearing on Monday over artificial intelligence safety with representatives from leading developers of the technology set to testify.
Representatives from OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic and Google will speak before the city council as it weighs several proposals for guardrails. The hearing follows weeks of professionals in the tech industry sounding the alarm about the dangerous potential of AI.
“One of the biggest concerns is that there has been no guardrails created,” said Oswald Feliz, council member and chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee. “Recently, we heard from the federal government, they basically stated that they created a committee of about 10 individuals so that they can self-regulate.”
Julie Menin, city council speaker, said the federal government’s proposal that AI will self-regulate “defies all reason.” She said the council will “urgently examine the risks posed by artificial intelligence.”
Of the five companies called to testify before the council, only one declined to attend: Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI. Menin said the council is planning to go to the courts, alleging that SpaceXAI is in “direct violation of the subpoena.”
Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher who posted on social media about his former employer and OpenAI fast tracking AI development despite the risks, will be in attendance on Monday.
Coxon wrote in a series of social media posts that AI poses a risk to human lives, warning that “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” The posts sparked a larger conversation, including among AI developers, about the speed at which the technology is being developed.
Logan Graham, head of Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team, Morgan Dwyer, OpenAI’s head of policy development and operations, Alice Friend, Google’s director of AI and emerging tech policy, and Shane Cahill, Meta’s AI policy director for legislation, are set to testify.
“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.