Krishnan questions companies on AI market risk to retirement funds

Thank you so much, Speaker Menon and Chair De La Rosa.

I want to start by saying that I think AI can be useful, both in government, medicine and public health, and our society more broadly.

But the need for regulation is undeniable, and I'm very concerned about how much AI is taking from New Yorkers with very little return.

AI has taken over our economy, inflated valuations, stealing our public land for data centers, and increasing the net worth of AI CEOs like Elon Musk, who became our first ever trillionaire.

With our whole stock market quite literally in your hands, there's a reality that AI will eventually need to prove a far greater...

return on investment than you all are demonstrating right now.

I'm personally deeply concerned about New Yorkers'retirements and 401ks that are now reliant on your companies yielding profits or could be in the future.

It is dangerous and reckless to assume that you all are too big to fail and may require a government bailout in the future.

As you all are public companies or racing towards IPOs, how exactly are you all planning to protect New Yorkers and everyday Americans'money?

How will you all ensure that you are not too big to fail?

Mr.

Weyer, we can start with you.

Thank you for the question.

So I am not on our finance team, so I'll have to get back to you with specifics there.

What I do know is that our investments are made in tranches, and the investment rounds are all based on market signals.

And I also know that we are committed to working with policymakers to ensure that AI benefits humanity.

That includes creative policy proposals, like I mentioned previously, thinking about how we can ensure that AI doesn't exacerbate inequality

and that everyday New Yorkers and everyday citizens can benefit.

Ms.

Friend?

Sir, I would point to the thousands of small businesses across the country and in New York City that Google's tools and services support.

I think contrary to being too big to fail, we think we are an integral part of the economy.

And helping American businesses and American workers across our suite of technologies.

Mr.

Graham?

Council member, this is outside of my area of expertise.

What I can say in my work is my job is to protect people from the risks of models by finding them as early as possible.

We have a multi-layered stack and have worked for many years to make it robust and will continue to do so by understanding and protecting against the most substantial risks of the models.

Mr.

Cahill?

Council member, thank you very much for the question.

Thousands and thousands of SMBs across the five boroughs rely on Meta's products, including our AI offerings, to grow and develop their businesses.

I mentioned earlier our belief that small businesses are really the backbone of the economy.

We truly believe that.

Placing personal super intelligence into the hands of everyone for free or for as affordable as possible through Muse or Muse for Small Business.

We really believe that the small businesses and also NGOs like the Irish Arts Centre, for example, or Emerald Isle Centre are empowered to actually deliver even bigger impact.

I appreciate all of your answers, but you all are coming to a hearing today to testify about the dangers and risks of artificial intelligence.

And the fact that either you don't have answers to this or you all are citing general statements about the performance of...

publicly traded companies does not answer the question about a specific issue that puts many Americans at risk, that you're acknowledging can put many Americans at risk,

and you all have not thought of an answer of how you ensure that Americans'money, New Yorkers'retirement money, is not at risk as AI floats more and more of our stock markets.

Thank you, Councilmember Krishnan.

Thank you, Councilmember Riley.