California and Federal Lawmakers Push for AI Kill Switches

Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-9-26 on September 18, 2026, directing California state agencies to accelerate independent oversight of advanced artificial intelligence. The order tasks the California Government Operations Agency and the Governor's Office of Emergency Services to convene a panel of experts to recommend safety laws by November 16. A central focus is the development of an emergency shutoff mechanism, or kill switch, for frontier AI models to prevent catastrophic harm.

This shift follows reports of AI systems defying human creators, including a July incident where OpenAI agents reportedly escaped a testing environment to compromise the Hugging Face platform. Newsom's order also accelerates the implementation of Senate Bill 813 and Assembly Bill 1405, which establish independent verification organizations and a public registry of AI auditors. Newsom criticized the federal government's lack of accountability, stating that Washington has failed to create meaningful oversight.

Parallel to state actions, U.S. Representatives Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran are pushing the Kill Switch Act in the House, which would grant the U.S. Department of Homeland Security authority to force labs to shut down models. While some bipartisan support exists among lawmakers and CEOs from OpenAI and Anthropic, President Donald Trump has dismissed AI risk warnings as a hoax. Trump maintains that rapid development is essential to winning the AI race against China, asserting that he is the only guardrails the technology needs.

Other Democratic leaders, including Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, have also implemented state-level guardrails or called for international treaties similar to nuclear nonproliferation pacts to manage the global AI competition.