A former Anthropic employee who publicly resigned last month told a New York City Council hearing that the pace of artificial intelligence development had outstripped safeguards. Jacob Coxon, who left Anthropic in December, said the industry’s culture of “move fast, break things” was unsuitable for technology with unprecedented power.

Coxon appeared before the council alongside former staff from Google, OpenAI and Meta, where they faced questions about potential risks. Their testimony coincided with growing concern among researchers about the long-term implications of advanced AI systems, a concern that has recently entered broader policy debates.

OpenAI policy representative Morgan Dwyer was asked to assess the level of risk posed by AI. She responded that she could not provide a precise measurement but emphasized that any risk was unacceptable. Council members pressed for greater clarity, with Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams describing the answer as “God-awful, fantastically terrible.”

The hearing marked one of several recent efforts by city officials to examine the societal impact of AI, as companies and lawmakers grapple with how to balance innovation with oversight.