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Ex-Anthropic researcher Coxon testifies to New York City Council

Speaker Julie Menin has called AI whistleblowers and four big labs to a hearing on bills that set safeguards in the city.

By Alexandre S. , 05:30 UTC

Jacob Coxon, the researcher who left Anthropic last month with a public warning about the race to build more powerful AI, testifies before the New York City Council on Monday 5 October 2026, Bloomberg reports. He confirmed his plans to Bloomberg, and Reuters relayed the report on Sunday.

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Drawn by adtestbench from “Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon to testify at NYC hearing on AI”,

Council Speaker Julie Menin asked for his testimony as members weigh a package of AI bills. Two more former lab researchers are on the list: Alex Turner, ex-Google DeepMind, and Daniel Kokotajlo, ex-OpenAI and now head of the AI Futures Project. Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta are sending policy and safety officials. Meta signed up first; the other three came after Menin’s office raised the prospect of subpoenas, Bloomberg reports.

One bill would pay whistleblowers part of any fines collected from AI firms. Others would open a route for people harmed by AI to sue developers in set cases, and make some systems pass an outside check before launch in the city.

For AI vendors with New York customers, the validation bill is the one that reaches products directly: it would add an outside check before a system goes live in the city.

Sources

  1. Bloomberg via Business Standard: Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon to testify at NYC hearing on AI. Checked
  2. Reuters: Former Anthropic researcher Coxon to testify at New York City AI hearing, Bloomberg News reports. Checked

Alexandre S.

Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.

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