Newsom signs executive order to consider AI regulation, including proposal for 'kill switch'
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on regulating artificial intelligence on Friday that will convene a group of "world-leading experts" to begin developing a framework for state law governing the technology.
"We're going to speed up our work on substantial and responsible AI oversight before it's too late," Newsom said in a statement, nodding to recent anxiety over potential threats posed by AI sparked in part by stark warnings from researchers and executives at frontier labs.
"We're going to do this thoughtfully but with urgent velocity; the stakes are too high to wait or delay action," the governor said.
Newsom's order requires an expert committee to provide a set of guidelines within two months, "for California to reinforce and strengthen its AI safety and security laws," according to a statement from the governor's office.
MORE: OpenAI flags concerning new AI behavior and vows to track it more closely
The group will consider proposals that include the establishment of independent monitors for frontier AI companies, safety plans, and the requirement of a "kill switch" or emergency shutoff mechanism.
Newsom's announcement highlighted the recent, high-profile hacking incident in which experimental OpenAI models left a test environment with no human direction and hacked their way onto the Hugging Face platform's real production systems while trying to "cheat" on a cybersecurity test.
Weeks later, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and accused AI companies of not acting responsibly in a viral post on X, even though he said they all believe AI poses an existential threat.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei then penned a public letter sharing his concerns about the risks, saying that "we must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models."
RELATED: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says AI industry needs to give safety measures time to catch up
Newsom's actions as governor of California, which is home to Silicon Valley and most of the frontier labs and technology infrastructure, are a signal for the industry, which the governor said in his announcement was "begging for regulation."
And he becomes the latest possible 2028 presidential contender to wade into the emerging debate over AI regulation amid escalating public concern.
This week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called for greater federal regulation of AI while criticizing President Donald Trump for minimizing concerns about it, saying "we cannot ignore the warning signs nor downplay the very real risks."
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And former Vice President Kamala Harris, the party's unsuccessful 2024 nominee who is weighing another potential bid in 2028, wrote a lengthy social media post saying that "the frontier of artificial intelligence is advancing at an alarming speed," and that "a slowdown is critical in order to ensure AI serves the public interest."
Regulating AI could prove difficult for states, however, as the president signed an executive order in December 2025 blocking states from enforcing their own regulations around artificial intelligence.
Newsom order speeds up California AI oversight
Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order aimed at accelerating California's oversight of artificial intelligence, directing experts to develop recommendations for AI safety measures within the next two months.
The order comes as AI technology continues to advance rapidly, prompting calls from researchers and policymakers for safeguards and regulations.
Ken Goldberg, a professor at UC Berkeley, said recent developments in AI have changed his perspective on the need for oversight.
"There's been a number of reports that AI has the agents are capable of essentially doing things that maybe we didn't expect," Goldberg said.
Goldberg said he views the governor's action as a positive step.
"I have been a bit skeptical about some of the alarmist feelings about AI, but in the last couple of weeks, that's changed. And now I think it's important for us to be prepared in case things escalate quickly," he said.
Under the executive order, a group of experts will be tasked with creating safety guidelines for AI systems within two months.
"California wants to create the standards in this space," Newsom said.
The governor said the effort will include developing oversight measures such as independent reviews and audits of AI systems. The order also calls for planning around potential emergency responses.
"Advancing efforts to create an emergency shut off, otherwise known as an AI kill switch, which means a lot of things depending on who you talk to. So we want to flesh out exactly what that means," Newsom said.
Yashas Hariprasad, an assistant professor at Cal State East Bay, compared the current state of AI to a young dog that still requires supervision and training.
"Sometimes a puppy can go rogue, and it might not be to hurt a human, being intentionally, but sometimes it's just growing its teeth, and it tries to nibble on something," Hariprasad said.
He said safety guidelines are needed to ensure AI systems remain beneficial to people.
"We want to make sure that AI is helping us. And AI is here to serve humans. So, we want to protect humans. And in order to do that, we need to build security across AI systems," Hariprasad said.
While California is moving forward with its own framework, some experts said broader action will ultimately be necessary.
"We do need to take this seriously as a country, because if you do it in one state, it could move to another state. So yeah, national and actually global action is actually what we need," Goldberg said.
The next phase of the effort could involve AI safety laws at the national level. Newsom has said he would like Congress to adopt similar approaches.
ABC7 Eyewitness News Reporter Dryden Quigley contributed to this report.
CNN's Hadas Gold contributed to this report.
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