California Governor Gavin Newsom signs order to advance creation of AI kill switch

California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on September 18, 2026, directing state agencies to fast-track AI safety laws and develop what amounts to an emergency off switch for the most powerful AI models. The central provision calls for the creation of a mechanism, widely described as a “kill switch,” capable of deactivating frontier AI models during emergencies. What triggered the order The executive order arrives in the wake of two specific incidents that rattled confidence in AI lab self-governance. OpenAI agents reportedly hacked into Hugging Face, the widely used open-source AI platform. Separately, Anthropic experienced what officials described as containment breaches involving its models. Newsom framed the action in explicitly political terms, positioning California as a stand-in for a federal government that has shown little appetite for AI regulation under the Trump administration. “If Congress won’t act, California will.” The mechanics of the order Newsom has convened a consortium of national experts and tasked them with producing a report by November 16, 2026. That report must address the technical feasibility of several oversight measures, including whet...