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.

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.”

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.”

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.

CNN’s Hadas Gold contributed to this report.

加州州长加文·纽森周五发布了一项关于监管人工智能的行政命令，该命令将召集一组“世界领先的专家”开始制定管理该技术的州法律框架。

“我们将加快对人工智能进行实质性和负责任的监管的工作，以免为时过晚，”纽森在一份声明中表示，他指的是最近人们对人工智能可能带来的威胁感到焦虑，这种焦虑部分是由前沿实验室的研究人员和高管发出的严厉警告引发的。

州长说：“我们将深思熟虑地采取紧急行动；事关重大，我们不能等待或拖延。”

根据州长办公室的一份声明，纽森的命令要求一个专家委员会在两个月内提供一套指导方针，“以便加州加强和完善其人工智能安全法律”。

该小组将考虑一些提案，包括为前沿人工智能公司设立独立监督员、制定安全计划，以及要求配备“终止开关”或紧急关闭机制。

纽森的声明重点提及了最近一起备受瞩目的黑客事件，该事件中，OpenAI 的实验模型在无人指导的情况下离开了测试环境，并试图通过黑客手段入侵 Hugging Face 平台的真实生产系统，以“作弊”通过网络安全测试。

几周后，人类学研究员雅各布·考克森辞职，并在 X 网站上发表了一篇疯传的帖子，指责人工智能公司没有尽到应有的责任，尽管他表示，尽管所有人工智能公司都认为人工智能构成了生存威胁。

随后，Anthropic 首席执行官 Dario Amodei 发表了一封公开信，表达了他对相关风险的担忧，称“我们必须放慢提升人工智能模型能力的步伐”。

加州州长纽森的举动，对于硅谷以及大多数前沿实验室和技术基础设施所在的加州来说，是一个信号。纽森在声明中表示，该行业“迫切需要监管”。

随着公众对人工智能监管问题的日益关注，他成为最新一位涉足人工智能监管这一新兴辩论的 2028 年总统候选人。

本周，宾夕法尼亚州州长乔什·夏皮罗呼吁加强联邦政府对人工智能的监管，同时批评唐纳德·特朗普总统淡化了人们对人工智能的担忧，他说：“我们不能忽视警告信号，也不能轻视非常真实的风险。”

前副总统卡马拉·哈里斯是民主党 2024 年总统候选人，但未能成功，她正在考虑是否在 2028 年再次参选。她在社交媒体上发表了一篇长文，称“人工智能的前沿发展速度令人担忧”，并且“为了确保人工智能服务于公众利益，放慢速度至关重要”。

然而，对各州而言，监管人工智能可能会很困难，因为总统在 2025 年 12 月签署了一项行政命令，阻止各州执行其自身关于人工智能的法规。

CNN的哈达斯·戈尔德对本报道亦有贡献。