{"id":375202,"date":"2026-10-16T22:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T22:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375202\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T22:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T22:22:09","slug":"nyc-council-speaker-menin-slams-spacexai-safety-standards-using-sexualized-image-as-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375202\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Council Speaker Menin slams SpaceXAI safety standards, using sexualized image as proof"},"content":{"rendered":"

City Council Speaker Julie Menin asserted that SpaceXAI, Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company<\/a>, does not have efficient safety controls at a hearing on Friday \u2014 using a sexualized image of herself that she said Grok, the company\u2019s chatbot, created to make her point.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is it that within a second I could find a sexualized image of myself, using Grok?\u201d Menin asked Gabriela Castillo Madrid, SpaceXAI\u2019s<\/a> senior manager of global government affairs, at the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak to that specific instance,\u201d Castillo Madrid said, adding that she would have SpaceXAI\u2019s team look into the incident. She also said that Grok, the company\u2019s AI chatbot, has \u201cstrict controls\u201d to prevent the sexualization of individuals, including children.\u00a0 \u201cUnfortunately, there\u2019s always going to be bad actors and folks trying to get around safeguards, and our work is to catch them and get them to the right authorities,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The picture in question, reviewed by the Daily News, showed an AI-generated Menin with exaggerated breasts, wearing a tank top and short shorts kneeling in front of flags. \u201cThat was not even on the spicy mode,\u201d Menin said, calling it \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA photo taken during the New York City Council’s Committee on Technology hearing with Space X on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (Alex Krales \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa<\/a>, the chair of the Technology Committee, called the image \u201cdisgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a woman\u2019s body is being utilized in the way that these pictures are sexualizing the leaders of our city, that\u2019s not safety,\u201d De La Rosa said.<\/p>\n

SpaceXAI testified before the Council only after being compelled to testify with a subpoena<\/a> and being threatened with further legal action. Last week, executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta testified at a rare Committee of the Whole meeting. They largely did not provide clear answers to councilmembers\u2019 questions about the potential risks of the quickly-evolving technology and the safety protocols and insurance policies they have in place.<\/p>\n

Menin and the SpaceXAI rep also clashed when the speaker asked\u00a0how many people SpaceXAI employs\u00a0to ensure safety standards are being followed \u2014 to which\u00a0Castillo Madrid responded that \u201ceverybody is in charge of safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a very basic question, and I\u2019m going to ask that by the end of the testimony, you provide that answer to us,\u201d Menin replied.<\/p>\n

\"AA smartphone displaying the SpaceX logo is shown in the foreground with a portrait of Elon Musk blurred in the arriere-plan in Tunis,Tunisia on July 11,2026. (Photo by Imen Ben Youssef \/ Hans Lucas \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

And the speaker also took issue with Castillo Madrid\u2019s claim that she had no knowledge about the circumstances around Devin Kim\u2019s alleged firing from SpaceXAI after raising safety concerns about its AI development. Kim, who also testified during the hearing, is now suing the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she was lying,\u201d Menin told reporters, also telling Castillo Madrid the claim was \u201cnot credible\u201d during the hearing.<\/p>\n

During last week\u2019s hearing, a member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Jess Asato, testified against SpaceXAI. Asato, who traveled from the U.K. to appearing at the hearing, has sued the company in the UK over sexualized images of her that were created by its AI chatbot tool, Grok.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI needs to be safe around our world,\u201d Asato told the hearing, calling the company\u2019s absence a \u201cshame.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City Council is considering 10 pieces of legislation aimed at regulating the AI industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council Speaker Julie Menin asserted that SpaceXAI, Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company, does not have efficient safety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85,267,9,10,692,12,56,63,65,64,87],"class_list":["post-375202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-politics","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}