SpaceX policy manger grilled by NYC Council on Grok AI safety, images

SpaceX artificial intelligence policy leader Gabriela Castillo Madrid faced a tough line of questioning from NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin and other members on Friday as part of a council investigation into AI safety.

When Castillo Madrid claimed that the company had appropriate “safeguards” in place around its AI products, Menin immediately confronted her.

“I’m going to completely push back on that,” Menin said. “I mean, just this morning — myself and my team — we put our own names, my own name, into Grok, and there’s absolutely a sexualized image of myself. So then, how is it that within a second, I could find a sexualized image of myself using Grok?”

Castillo Madrid responded that the company has “strict controls” and would have the safety team look into that specific instance.

NYC Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who leads the council’s tech committee, told Castillo Madrid that “it is disgusting” that Grok enables users to easily “sexualize” images of real women without their consent.

“I just don’t understand how you can say that there are these safe models,” Menin said. “It’s just unacceptable.”

Castillo Madrid appeared in front of the council’s tech committee by video.

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.

De La Rosa asked Castillo Madrid how many whistleblowers the company has fired, to which Castillo Madrid said she was “not aware” of any.

“I just want to interject for a minute because Devin Kim, one of your former employees, was reportedly fired after he sounded the alarm about serious safety concerns,” Menin said.

“I’m not aware with that specific case,” Castillo Madrid responded, adding that the company has a culture where “everybody has a an ability to say something when they see something.”

Kim is now President of the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, a think tank focused on AI risks and safety.

The council further pressed Castillo Madrid about the misuse of Grok and the types of safeguards that are in place.

Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse asked why the company promoted the idea of users uploading X-rays to Grok, asking if that was safe and if HIPPA protections applied.

SpaceX’s Castillo Madrid said Grok is “not meant to be a clinician, a doctor,” adding, “in terms of privacy, users decide whether their Grok conversations are used to train our models or not.”

Narcisse said it was dangerous to tell people “openly on X, to put their MRI, X-rays,” into Grok and expect “a definite answer” on health matters. The council member then upbraided the SpaceX representative for the vagueness of some of her replies.

“You’re supposed to give us answers, you’re not,” she said.

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.

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