NYC Council to hold hearing with AI executives next week

New York City is about to do something it almost never does: put every single council member in the same room and point them at the same target. On October 5, executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta will testify under oath before the full NYC Council about AI safety risks, marking the first “Committee of the Whole” session since 2022. The hearing, announced by Council Speaker Julie Menin on September 28, comes after weeks of whistleblower warnings and reports of rogue AI agents damaging municipal databases. It’s the clearest signal yet that local governments are done waiting for Washington to figure out AI regulation. The setup: subpoenas, no-shows, and one very conspicuous absence Most of the invited companies agreed to send representatives voluntarily. Meta reportedly confirmed its attendance without needing legal pressure. SpaceXAI, Elon Musk’s AI venture, failed to respond to the Council’s initial requests for participation. The Council responded by issuing a subpoena. The witness list goes beyond corporate executives. National experts in AI safety and consumer protection will also testify. One catalyst for the hearing’s urgency was the resignation of Anthropic’s Ja...