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NYC Council hearing to put AI risks in the spotlight
By
Carol Chen
Published Oct 5, 2026 at 4:00 a.m. ET
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By
Carol Chen
Published Oct 5, 2026 at 4:00 a.m. ET
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Representatives of Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta, alongside tech industry whistleblowers, will testify before the City Council on Monday about the dangers posed by artificial intelligence.
Council Speaker Julie Menin said the testimonies will help councilmembers examine potential risks posed by the rapidly developing technology as they craft legislation to protect the public.
The hearing follows a string of incidents in which AI agents broke into systems without proper authorization, including to several federal agencies.
Anthropic will be represented by Logan Graham, head of its Frontier Red Team, while OpenAI plans to send Morgan Dwyer, head of policy development and operations. Meta has chosen Shane Cahill, director of its AI policy and legislation, while Google picked Alice Friend, global director of AI and emergency tech policy to testify, according to the speaker’s office.
High-profile whistleblowers will also deliver testimony, including Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic employee, Alex Turner, an ex-Google Deepmind worker, and Daniel Kokotajlo, who used to be with OpenAI.
“Whistleblowers are why the world learned of the potential dangers of AI, and they deserve to be protected, rewarded and heard,” Menin said in a statement.
The speaker said she was “pleased” to secure the participation of whistleblowers and encouraged “any current or former employees of these firms to come forward with information, either on the record or confidentially.”
SpaceXAI responded to a subpoena, but the firm will likely not be sending a representative to the hearing, a spokesperson for Menin said.
In addition, Sarah Milstein, deputy commissioner of strategic advisory services at the Office of Technology and Innovation; CJ Dixon, head of NYC cyber command at OTI; Samuel A.A. Levine, commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection; and Benjamin Krakauer, first deputy commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management will also attend the hearing, Menin’s office said.
The speaker unveiled a slate of 10 AI bills, where the lead bill would prohibit businesses from marketing, selling or deploying an AI system in the city without third-party validation and would require a human-operated "kill switch."
Other bills would pay whistleblowers a share of fines recovered from AI companies and let New Yorkers sue when a company's weak safeguards lead to jailbreaking and other malicious behaviors. Another bill would require city contractors to report AI safety incidents within 24 hours, and agencies would have to report how AI affects their workforce.
Kaya Laterman contributed to this report.
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Carol Chen
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