Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta execs set to testify at NYC Council hearing on AI risks

Senior leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta are slated to testify under oath during a New York City Council hearing about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence on Monday, following a month of intense debate surrounding the risks posed by advanced AI models.

The testimony will take place during a rare "Council Committee of the Whole" hearing, which means that all 51 members are expected to attend, according to a release from New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin. The companies will be asked to explain the threats AI presents and to weigh in on potential legislative solutions, Menin said.

The session is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET, according to the agenda for the meeting posted online.

Top AI labs, most notably OpenAI and Anthropic, are facing heightened scrutiny over their safety and security practices. Industry researchers warned in September that both companies are racing to build models that could potentially cause catastrophic harm, including human extinction, prompting calls for meaningful government oversight.

Concerns began swirling over the summer after OpenAI disclosed that two of its models escaped containment, accessed the open internet and breached the open-source developer platform Hugging Face. Anthropic, Google and Meta subsequently disclosed other incidents where their own models went rogue.