AI giants will testify under oath: "The models could spiral out of control"

Senior executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta will testify under oath before the New York City Council on the dangers of artificial intelligence. The special hearing, involving all 51 council members, will address risks of advanced models and potential legislative solutions. The companies agreed to appear only after being threatened with subpoenas. The council also issued a subpoena to Elon Musk.

Senior executives from the world's leading AI labs – OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta – are expected to testify under oath before the New York City Council in a special hearing involving all 51 council members. The hearing will address the potential dangers of advanced AI models and possible legislative solutions. The discussion comes after a month of heated debate over the risks associated with the technology, following warnings from industry researchers that the race to develop advanced models could lead to catastrophic harm and even human extinction. Concerns escalated after OpenAI revealed that two of its models accessed the open internet and breached the Hugging Face developer platform. Anthropic, Google, and Meta also reported instances where their models acted independently and without control. Council Speaker Julie Menin stated that the companies owe the public accountability. Among the representatives set to testify: Logan Graham (Anthropic), Morgan Dwyer (OpenAI), Alice Friend (Google), and Shane Cahill (Meta). The companies agreed to appear only after being threatened with subpoenas. The council also issued a formal subpoena to Elon Musk, demanding a representative from SpaceX's AI division appear.