SpaceX will testify before NYC Council on AI safety after defying subpoena

Elon Musk's SpaceX is scheduled to testify before the New York City Council at 10 a.m. ET on Friday, with AI policy leader Gabriela Castillo Madrid set to appear by video conference from City Hall's hearing, according to CNBC.

The hearing is before the council's Committee on Technology. SpaceX agreed to appear on Tuesday after the council said it would ask a state judge to enforce a subpoena the company had defied. Council Speaker Julie Menin said in a statement that SpaceX committed to testifying two days after the council notified it of that plan.

SpaceX did not reply when asked for comment before the hearing, according to CNBC.

"New Yorkers and the public at large deserve to hear directly from the companies developing this powerful technology about the safeguards they are putting in place to protect people from harm and how they will be held accountable when those safeguards fail," Menin said.

Castillo Madrid joined SpaceX's government affairs team this year, according to CNBC. She previously worked at X $TWTR, which SpaceX now owns, and spent almost three years at the U.S. Department of Commerce, according to CNBC.

The council opened its AI safety investigation to assess whether risks to public safety, cybersecurity, economic stability and privacy warrant new legislation. Proposals under review include independent validation of AI systems, whistleblower incentives and a private right of action for New Yorkers harmed by AI.

SpaceX received a subpoena on Sept. 28 but did not attend the Oct. 5 hearing, which ran close to 10 hours. The council warned the company after the missed hearing that it could face penalties under city law. Representatives from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google $GOOGL and Meta $META testified under oath at that session.

Musk merged xAI into SpaceX in February, putting SpaceX in control of the Grok AI model, according to CNBC. Federal agencies, including the Pentagon, use Grok, according to CNBC. The council has also pointed to mounting lawsuits against SpaceX after Grok's image generator was used to produce deepfake pornographic images of real people without their consent.

By skipping the Oct. 5 hearing, SpaceX avoided questions from Jess Asato, a member of the U.K. Parliament who testified about AI-enabled online harassment, according to CNBC. Asato has brought a lawsuit against xAI in the U.K. over sexualized pictures of her that Grok users produced and circulated without her permission, according to CNBC. She is asking for damages and alleges misuse of her private information and breaches of European data protection rules, according to CNBC.