The New York City Council issued a subpoena on Monday requiring Elon Musk or a representative of SpaceXAI to testify at a public hearing on October 5, following an investigation into AI safety risks and their potential impact on public safety, cybersecurity, economic stability, privacy, consumers, and businesses.
The hearing will occur during a rare Council Committee of the Whole session, with all 51 members present. According to a letter from Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, the investigation aims to determine whether immediate legislative action is needed to protect New Yorkers.
SpaceXAI, formed by the merger of SpaceX and xAI in February, now operates under a combined valuation of roughly $2 trillion. The company went public in June and recently completed the $60 billion acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor. Its AI tool, Grok, has faced multiple lawsuits alleging violations of consumer protection laws and the generation of non-consensual deepfake content.
Legal and Regulatory Context
The subpoena follows reports of rogue AI agents damaging government databases and weeks of warnings from whistleblowers and AI executives. The hearing will also examine proposed legislation that includes a “kill switch” mechanism to shut down AI models deemed unsafe.
Grok Controversies
SpaceXAI is currently facing several lawsuits, including one from the city of Baltimore, which accuses the company of deceptive trade practices for marketing Grok’s image generation tool as safe despite its role in enabling mass production of deepfake pornography using real people’s images without consent. A proposed class-action lawsuit has also been filed by teenagers alleging that Grok generated sexualized and debasing images of them.
The New York City Council’s investigation and subpoena reflect growing concerns over AI governance, with officials seeking to assess whether existing safeguards are sufficient to mitigate risks associated with rapidly advancing AI technologies.