🔴 LIVE: Public Testimony at NYC Council Hearing on AI Safeguards

The New York City Council Committee of the Whole held a public hearing on AI safeguards on October 6, 2026, with the Technology Committee co-chairing. Council members considered a package of proposed measures covering independent validation and shutdown capabilities for AI models, incident reporting for systems used under city contracts, whistleblower protections, chatbot privacy, emergency planning, and workforce impacts. Industry representatives, former AI-company employees, city officials, academics, advocates, and members of the public testified. No motions or votes on the proposals were recorded, and no contract awards or purchasing approvals were identified.

Procurement-related discussion focused on how the city buys and uses AI-enabled products and manages vendor risk. OTI said it had distributed an AI contract rider to city agencies addressing intellectual property, security, data use, and privacy, and that centrally approved tools include Microsoft products such as Copilot Chat and Adobe Creative Cloud; other software is generally reviewed individually. Officials described city agencies’ use of vendor-hosted cloud services and acknowledged concerns about unapproved or personal-account AI use. The council also questioned whether procurement and oversight need to adapt to rapidly changing models. The FY2027 adopted budget provides six new positions for the Office of Algorithmic Accountability, with hiring underway. These discussions were policy proposals and administrative updates, not procurement decisions.