NYC Council questions SpaceXAI after the Speaker says Grok sexualized her image

On Oct 16, the New York City Council held a follow-up AI safety hearing on SpaceXAI. The Council says it is the first subpoena it has issued to a private actor, after SpaceXAI did not attend the prior Council-wide hearing that included sworn testimony from Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI.

The Council's release says Speaker Julie Menin told Gabriela Castillo Madrid, Senior Manager of Global Government Affairs at SpaceXAI, that she had created a sexualized image of herself within seconds using Grok, and asked how that could happen if Grok had "strict controls." Castillo Madrid could not speak to the images and said her safety team could look into that specific instance. CNBC quotes Menin saying that she and her team put her name into Grok that morning and that a sexualized image of her came up "within a second," after Castillo Madrid had described safeguards. CNBC says Castillo Madrid answered that the company has "strict controls" and would have the safety team look into that instance. This story does not reproduce the image.

The Council is considering Intro 504, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Nantasha Williams, which would ban the unauthorized depiction of photos, videos, or audio of elected officials by artificial intelligence. The release also says the Council introduced Intro-2605, sponsored by Speaker Menin, which would let whistleblowers receive a portion of fines recovered from AI companies that break the law. CNBC reports Castillo Madrid appeared by video, and that SpaceX agreed to testify this week after the Council threatened to have the earlier subpoena enforced by a judge.

What it costs

Neither the Council release nor the CNBC story publishes a fine amount, a Grok price change, or a fee for the hearing.

Should you switch

This is a hearing, not a new Grok control you can toggle. The reported dispute is whether Grok will produce a sexualized image of a real person after the company said it has controls against that. The bills named above are proposed, not law.