SpaceXAI testifies under oath to the New York City Council, and cannot speak to a sexualized Grok image of the Speaker
Its witness said she was not aware of a whistleblower's firing. The committee chair says the companies “cannot self-regulate”, and the Council will send follow-up letters.
What changed: on 13 October SpaceXAI, Elon Musk's Grok maker, agreed to appear after the New York City Council subpoenaed it. On Friday 16 October it testified before the Council's Committee on Technology. The Council calls it its first subpoena on record against a private actor. SpaceXAI had skipped the Council's earlier hearing at which Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta testified.
The witness was Gabriela Castillo Madrid, SpaceXAI's senior manager of global government affairs. According to the Council's release, Speaker Julie Menin said Grok had produced a sexualized image of her within seconds. Castillo Madrid could not speak to the images and said her safety team “could look into that specific instance”. The release says she also testified under oath that she was not aware of the firing of Devin Kim, a whistleblower who says only three of the company's 200 technical employees worked on AI safety training.
Menin said: “Despite being under oath, their testimony raised far more questions than it answered”. Committee chair Carmen De La Rosa said: “It became clear to us that they cannot self-regulate.” The Council says it will send follow-up letters. Two pending bills were discussed: Intro 504, which would ban unauthorised AI-generated depictions of elected officials, and Intro 2605, which would let whistleblowers share in penalties recovered from AI companies.
NY1 reports that the company testified only after being subpoenaed. amNY reports that Castillo Madrid appeared virtually.
- Confirmed SpaceXAI's Gabriela Castillo Madrid testified under oath on 16 October and could not speak to the Grok images of Speaker Menin. New York City Council
- Confirmed She testified that she was not aware of whistleblower Devin Kim's firing or his account that three of 200 technical staff worked on safety training. New York City Council
- Reported NY1 reports that the company testified on Friday only after being subpoenaed. NY1
- Reported amNY reports that Castillo Madrid appeared virtually. amNY
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