'Arrogant' SpaceXAI fails to attend MP's testimony

A Suffolk MP has been giving evidence to New York City Council as it becomes the first American body to put forward laws to regulate AI developers.

Jess Asato is suing xAI in the UK after sexualised images of her were created by its AI chatbot tool, Grok.

She is seeking damages from the company, owned by Elon Musk, for the misuse of her private information and breaches of data protection rules.

Asato told the BBC that the failure of SpaceXAI - which owns xAI - to turn up at the hearing, despite being subpoenaed, demonstrated its "level of arrogance". SpaceXAI has been contacted for comment.

The hearing, which was held on 5 October, was the council's Committee of the Whole - a rare meeting where all council members are present.

In her opening statement, the speaker, Julie Menin, acknowledged the benefit of AI use on science and medical breakthroughs, but said the meeting had been called in response to "serious existential safety concerns" over AI development and "the catastrophic dangers of the technology".

She added that the lack of federal regulation of AI developers in the USA had meant they needed to develop effective AI regulation in New York.

In America, national laws are made by federal government - but states and cities can also make their own legislation.

After being invited to speak about her experiences and legal action, Asato said: "It was quite a long way to go but I thought if I could take the message of what we're trying to do here in the UK over to New York, to the centre of AI and tech development, then I might be able to help to get a much safer platform built for the future."

She said her flight and accommodation had been paid for by Reset Tech, a public policy organisation advocating for technology that protects children, consumers, and public safety.

Asato filed a lawsuit back in July, suing xAI for damages after non-consensual images and videos, including some showing her being sexually assaulted, were shared online.

She is seeking damages for the misuse of her private information and breaches of data protection rules, as well as a court order requiring the company to find and remove any remaining online images.

xAI is yet to file a defence to the legal action.

Asato said she also highlighted in her evidence that women were disproportionally affected.

She said: "We know that 99% of images that are made into sexualised videos are of women. 90% of deep fake pornographic images are of women, so it's a very gendered crime.

"They also specifically asked me about elected representatives, because obviously I am a member of parliament, and I talked about the fact that we also know that women are 33 times more likely to be targeted by sexual deep fakes than men who are elected.

"So it is definitely something that we can see right across the piece, whether you're elected or not. Women are targeted by deep fake AI."

At the hearing, the five major AI developers in New York - Anthropic, Meta, Google, OpenAI and SpaceXAI - were subpoenaed to testify.

Four of them turned up but SpaceXAI did not send a representative.

Asato said: "I think it shows a certain amount of arrogance or a sense that actually these companies don't need to be held accountable by elected representatives."

Menin told the hearing the city would be pursuing SpaceXAI through the courts as its no-show was a "direct violation".

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