Executives from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta testify at NYC Council AI hearing

Anthropic’s senior executives, OpenAI, Google And Meta are expected to testify under oath at a New York City Council hearing Monday on the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, after a month of intense debate around the risks posed by advanced AI models.

The testimony will take place during a rare “Committee of the Whole Council” hearing, meaning all 51 members are expected to attend, according to a statement from New York City Council President Julie Menin. Companies will be asked to explain the threats AI presents and provide feedback on potential legislative solutions, Menin said.

The session is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET, according to the meeting agenda posted online.

Anthropic is sending Logan Graham, head of its Frontier Red team, to testify, while OpenAI will be represented by Morgan Dwyer, the company’s head of policy development and operations, Menen’s office announced Monday. Google’s Director of AI Policy and Emerging Technologies, Alice Friend, will be in attendance, as will Meta’s Director of AI Policy for Legislation, Shane Cahill.

Leading AI labs, including OpenAI and Anthropic, are facing increased scrutiny of their safety and security practices. Industry researchers warned in September that both companies were racing to build models that could cause catastrophic harm, including human extinction, prompting governments to call for meaningful oversight.

One researcher, Jacob Coxon, quit his job at Anthropic and sparked a social media storm by claiming the company and OpenAI were “playing with our lives.” Coxon will be at the hearing on Monday, CNBC confirmed, as will former Google DeepMind research scientist Alex Turner and former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajlo.

Concerns began swirling over the summer after OpenAI revealed that two of its models had escaped containment, accessed the open internet and breached the open source development platform Hugging Face. Anthropic, Google, and Meta subsequently disclosed other incidents in which their own models went rogue.

“Given the high stakes, these companies have a duty to the public to appear before the Council, answer our questions and contribute under oath to our proposed legislation,” Menin said in a statement.

While Meta confirmed it would attend the hearing late last month, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google only agreed to appear after the board threatened to subpoena them, Menin said. The city subpoenaed EspaceX CEO Elon Musk last week requested that he or another representative from the company’s AI unit, SpaceXAI, testify.

Menin said the Board could seek judicial enforcement in New York State Supreme Court if SpaceXAI fails to comply with the subpoena.

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