New York City Council president slams SpaceX over AI safety protocols

New York City Council President Julie Menin described SpaceX’s explanations of its artificial intelligence safety protocols as “totally and completely unsatisfactory,” “unacceptable” and “not credible” during a highly anticipated hearing Friday following threats of legal action against Elon Musk’s company.

Gabriela Castillo Madrid, SpaceX’s head of global government affairs, appeared by videoconference before the City Council’s Committee on Technology.

The hearing followed a binding subpoena issued by the legislative body after SpaceX failed to attend a previous session on October 5. The council had formally notified the company of its intention to seek intervention from the New York State Supreme Court to compel its participation.

After the testimony, Menin criticized the company’s position, saying its public emphasis on safety was contradicted by the evidence and testimony from former employee and whistleblower Devin Kim.

Menin said it was particularly troubling that SpaceX’s representative declined to address Kim’s dismissal. Kim, one of the early employees of SpaceX AI, told the committee that the company considered “tasteful nudity” acceptable.

The council president also said she was able to generate highly sexualized images using her own face through the Grok tool within seconds. She said the platform offered options to increase the level of sexualization in the images, raising concerns about the circulation of nonconsensual content involving women and minors.

“This does not align at all with SpaceX AI’s testimony that they are focused on safety,” Menin said, describing the company’s testimony as disappointing and not credible.

Council member Carmen De La Rosa, the Dominican-born chair of the Technology Committee, said the issue would remain a priority beyond Friday’s hearing. She said the council would continue pursuing legislation and oversight measures, including strengthening the role of the Office of Algorithmic Accountability.

SpaceX’s appearance followed an October 5 hearing featuring executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google, along with experts, industry whistleblowers and British lawmaker Jess Asato.

During that session, Menin called on technology companies to commit under oath to halting the release of AI models that fail internal or external safety evaluations.