SpaceX artificial intelligence policy leader Gabriela Castillo Madrid is set to testify before the New York City Council on Friday as part of a legislative investigation into AI safety.
The hearing with the council’s tech committee is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET at City Hall with Castillo Madrid appearing by video conference.
Elon Musk’s aerospace, defense tech and AI company originally evaded requests and a subpoena from the city council to appear alongside leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta on Oct. 5. SpaceX agreed to testify earlier this week after the council threatened to have its subpoena enforced by a judge.
The council opened its probe following a month of intense debate surrounding the risks posed by advanced AI models, and is aiming to use testimony and information unearthed through the investigation to guide new regulations.
Before Castillo Madrid took a role in government affairs at SpaceX earlier this year, she worked at X, Musk’s social media company that’s now owned by SpaceX, according to her LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, she spent almost three years at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
In merging SpaceX with xAI in February, Musk combined 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 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.
In 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. She’s 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 didn’t respond to a request for comment ahead of the meeting.
