Riley questions companies on misuse detection, whistleblowers, and data centers

Thank you, Chair De La Rosa and Speaker Menden, for putting together this hearing.

Thank you to the panelists for testifying.

Three quick questions, two pertaining to my bill and one pertaining to my role as land use chair.

So the first question is, what challenges do you face in detecting malicious uses of your AI products and identifying the individuals responsible when those tools cause harm?

The second question is, would stronger protections and reporting mechanisms for employees and users make it easier for them to come forward and report potential misuse or abuse of AI tools?

And the last question, as land use chair, I'm very, very concerned about data centers.

So what safeguards should cities put in place when locating data centers near residential communities, particularly to address energy use, noise, environmental impacts, and the quality of life?

And I don't want to call on you guys.

Just take turns to answer it, please.

Dwyer, Graham, friend, Cahill, please answer.

I'm happy to start.

First of all, I want to thank you for your bill, 2604, which OpenAI is happy to support today.

OpenAI takes safety issues very seriously, particularly as it relates to potential retaliation against employees.

We have a strong internal policy against retaliation for employees that report safety incidents.

And we, of course, respect employees'rights to communicate safety concerns to government officials.

Your second question on monitoring misuse, it's an incredibly important area.

It is something that OpenAI takes seriously.

We also make transparent detected instances of misuse.

And as part of our monitoring, we use that learning to constantly improve our safeguards.

We are constantly innovating on safety.

And so instances of misuse when they're detected, we enforce on our policies.

And long term, we learn from them and we improve our safeguards.

And the point on data centers, OpenAI is committed to paying our own way on energy.

That means different things in different places, but OpenAI has made that commitment at its data centers across the country.

We're also committed to working with policymakers.

You know, we signed Governor Gretchen Whitmer's

commitments for companies that are working in her state to ensure that there are responsible practices for companies building data centers locally.

Mr.

Graham?

It's good to be back.

You can see me again, I hope.

So on misuse and detecting risks, this is integral to what we do.

Can you get closer to the microphone?

We're having trouble hearing you.

Sorry.

Now we can't hear you.

We can't hear you.

Okay.

I will have the team troubleshoot, and I'll be back if that's okay.

We hear you.

We hear you.

Try now.

Go ahead.

How about now?

Does this work?

This works.

Okay.

My apologies.

Detecting threats and misuse is the core DNA of our company to make sure that we make the system safe.

We have an entire threat intelligence and safeguards team dedicated to this every day.

And I would point you to quite a lot of what we put out publicly, where we not only try to disclose as much as we possibly can, but we try to do so so that we can advance the state of the science of doing so for the entire industry.

In addition, we have a whistleblower policy, not only about us as a company, but also our safety practices.

This is public, and we've also committed to ongoing reviews of this policy.

And while this is outside my area of expertise, what I understand about data centers that we have committed to covering the energy prices or paying for our own energy use.

in local data centers, but I would refer to other teams who are more where it's within their role to give you the full answer.

Ms.

Friend?

Oh, sorry.

I got a notification.

Let's go ahead.

So I will echo my colleagues.

We also have content policies that we enforce across our platforms, which include on occasion taking down content that violates those policies.

We also have a Google Threat Intelligence group and multiple other cybersecurity intelligence programs that are constantly scanning for the safety and security of the Internet as a whole and also for our own systems.

We have also pledged to pay our own way when it comes to data centers.

I can follow up on any specific questions about local data center issues with the teams that work on each particular project.

Mr.

Cahill, go ahead.

Thank you very much, Council Member.

I appreciate your patience there.

In relation to your first question and your third question, we have expert teams that are taking forward this work, and I'd be happy to connect you with them afterwards.

I don't wish to be imprecise in relation to the robustness of our content policies.

In relation to data centres, again, we have entire teams of people here who are working on sustainable infrastructure and community impact and can speak

in more detail than I can in relation to communities shouldn't be bearing the costs, which is something that we believe in deeply.

In relation to your bill, Council Member 2604, thank you very much for being a constructive voice in the conversation around whistleblowers.

It is very important to us at Meta and we maintain.

Whistleblower policies, including anti-retaliation, and we're actually developing additional reporting protocols for AI safety.

Thank you.

I appreciate the structure that you guys have, but I don't know if you guys entirely answered the question I asked.

I really want to figure out what challenges you guys were seeing because challenges, hearing the challenges from you all will help us implement policy that can kind of protect individuals from artificial intelligence.

So I don't want to take up too much time, but looking forward to connecting with you all after.

Specifically, when it comes to data centers, also want to hear any safeguards because there are a tremendous amount of data centers, even though there was a moratorium put out earlier by the governor, there were data centers that were implemented by a lot of residential areas, especially in the Northeast Bronx.

We have data centers that are located next to homes, and we have a lot of residents who are concerned.

So we'd love to hear more about that moving forward.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember.