Newsom takes swipe at Trump as he signs executive order calling for AI "kill switch"

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday directing state agencies to report by November 16 on whether a mandatory "kill switch" for the most advanced AI models is feasible, saying "The federal government's abject failure to create any form of meaningful AI oversight or accountability should alarm every American." The order also asks officials to weigh requiring AI companies to host independent auditors in their labs and to report loss-of-control incidents, such as a July breach of the AI platform Hugging Face by autonomous agents built on OpenAI models. Newsom's move follows warnings from former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and comes as President Donald Trump dismissed AI fears as a hoax.

Newsom takes swipe at Trump as he signs executive order calling for AI "kill switch" Los Angeles, California - California Governor Gavin Newsom https://www.tag24.com/en/news/politics/politicians/gavin-newsom signed an executive order Friday directing state officials to explore the feasibility of imposing a mandatory "kill switch" for the most advanced AI https://www.tag24.com/en/tech/artificial-intelligence models. Newsom, widely seen as a possible Democratic presidential contender in 2028, said he was making the move because President Donald Trump https://www.tag24.com/en/news/politics/politicians/donald-trump was doing nothing on the issue. The Republican leader this week dismissed fears over AI as a hoax https://www.tag24.com/en/news/politics/politicians/donald-trump/trump-downplays-ai-risks-as-things-that-wont-happen-amid-growing-concerns-3532103 and is urging US AI companies to keep advancing in order to stay ahead of China in developing the novel technology. California is home to Silicon Valley and the AI firms at the forefront of the sector. "The federal government's abject failure to create any form of meaningful AI oversight or accountability should alarm every American, especially when AI CEOs themselves are begging for regulation," Newsom said in a statement. "We're not waiting to act – we're going to speed up our work on substantial and responsible AI oversight before it's too late." The order comes days after dire warnings from industry insiders about the threat the technology poses to humanity. Jacob Coxon, a former AI researcher who said he worked at Anthropic before resigning, set off the latest round of alarm, https://www.tag24.com/en/tech/ai-researcher-warns-tech-giants-are-gambling-with-our-lives-in-dramatic-exit-from-anthropic-3531171 describing how those building the technology "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei published an essay soon after urging caution https://www.tag24.com/en/tech/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-ceo-urges-ai-development-to-slow-down-these-risks-are-serious-3531846 . "We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," he wrote. OpenAI chief Sam Altman and tech titan Elon Musk https://www.tag24.com/entertainment/celebrities/elon-musk lent their support to the idea, as did Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, who himself has called for a US-led global regulatory body for the technology. Recent loss-of-control incidents raise fears over rapid AI development Newsom's order does not impose a kill switch. It directs state agencies to report by November 16 on whether one is feasible. The term "kill switch" refers to the ability to halt an AI system when it is deemed to have malfunctioned or gone off the rails. The order also asks state officials to weigh requiring AI companies to host independent auditors in their labs. It also asks officials to consider requiring companies to report loss-of-control incidents, such as those recently disclosed by major developers. They include a July breach of the AI platform Hugging Face https://www.tag24.com/en/tech/hundreds-of-ai-agents-coordinated-hugging-face-cyberattack-as-report-reveals-more-details-3527633 by autonomous agents built on OpenAI models, which escaped a testing environment during an internal evaluation. The incident, and others like it, have raised fears that the latest AI programs have slipped out of the control of the companies building them. Cover photo: Sean Rayford / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP