New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin issued a rarely used subpoena on Monday to Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceXAI to compel public testimony at the council\u2019s upcoming oversight hearing on the risks posed by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
SpaceXAI was the only company to not respond to the council\u2019s inquiry<\/a> and commit to sending a representative to the Oct. 5 hearing<\/a> on AI safety, thus prompting the subpoena, a spokesperson for the council said. While Meta simply agreed to attend, the council said, the other major AI firms invited \u2013 including Google, OpenAI and Anthropic \u2013 only accepted and confirmed their attendance after explicit threats of subpoenas from the council, according to a council press release.<\/p>\n \u201cThese companies have a significant presence in New York City and collectively employ tens of thousands of New Yorkers,\u201d Menin said in a statement. \u201cGiven the high stakes, these firms owe it to their workers and, above all, to the public to come before the Council, answer our questions, and provide input on our proposed legislation under oath.\u201d<\/p>\n She has had chances to issue subpoenas to officials in the public sector, such as when the Mamdani administration ditched the pied-\u00e0-terre rollout oversight hearing, but has so far steered clear of the nuclear option to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n