SpaceX AI Policy Leader to Testify in NYC Council Safety Investigation

SpaceX originally evaded requests and a subpoena from the city council to appear alongside leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta on Oct. 5. The company agreed to testify earlier this week after the council threatened to have its subpoena enforced by a judge.

The council opened its probe after a month of intense debate over the risks posed by advanced AI models. It aims to use testimony and information unearthed through the investigation to guide new regulations.

Before taking a government affairs role at SpaceX earlier this year, Castillo Madrid worked at X, the social media company now owned by SpaceX, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before that, she spent almost three years at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In February, Elon Musk merged SpaceX with xAI, combining his AI and social networking business with his rocket launch company, which also owns the Starlink satellite internet service. The merger put SpaceX in control of the AI model Grok, which is used by some federal agencies, including the Pentagon.

SpaceX went public in June and is now valued at about $2 trillion. In August, SpaceX completed a $60 billion acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor.

By skipping the earlier NYC Council hearing, SpaceX avoided direct questioning from a member of the U.K. Parliament, Jess Asato, who testified about experiencing AI-enabled online harassment. Asato is suing xAI in the U.K. after Grok users created and distributed sexualized images of her online without her consent, according to CNBC. She is seeking damages, alleging misuse of her private information and breaches of European data protection rules.

According to the BBC, Asato criticized SpaceX for its "arrogance" in not appearing last week.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment ahead of the meeting.