New York City Council Holds AI Hearing, Tech Executives Take the Stand

The New York City Council convened an exceptionally rare hearing, summoning all 51 council members to discuss artificial intelligence safety issues.

As concerns over AI grow while federal-level regulatory legislation remains absent, New York City, the largest city in the U.S., has taken preemptive action.

Senior executives from Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic appeared as witnesses at the hearing via video link.

When asked about the probability of AI causing a catastrophe, an OpenAI executive answered that the numbers did not matter, prompting sharp criticism from the City Council Speaker.

[JULIE Menin / New York City Council Speaker : To answer that you don't know and that it doesn't matter is dismissive. It is like a pharmaceutical company developing a drug and saying they do not know if it might kill people.]

A flurry of questions followed regarding whether there were any unpublished incidents and who would bear legal responsibility in the event of an AI-induced accident, but most of the witnesses avoided direct answers.

[Shekar Krishnan / New York City Council Member : You are here at this hearing to testify about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Yet you are failing to answer those questions, or are simply offering generalities.]

Amid ongoing criticism and reprimands, the companies acknowledged the need for regulation.

[Alice Friend / Google AI Policy Executive : We believe that a comprehensive regulatory framework enacted at the federal level is the most desirable approach.]

A former Anthropic researcher who left the company because AI development was progressing too fast appeared at the hearing to repeatedly warn against the dangers of AI.

[Jacob Cockson / Former AI Researcher : At the current trajectory, humanity is more likely to lose control over AI, and humanity could face extinction.]

The New York City Council is also pursuing measures to allow people harmed by AI to file lawsuits against its developers, as well as to mandate an emergency stop feature for AI.

Reported by Kim Hyunwoo | Camera by Lee Hee-hoon | Video Editing by Lee Sang-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.