US lawmakers have proposed a bill that would give the government the power to shut down artificial intelligence systems that threaten public safety – a move triggered by what OpenAI has described as an “unprecedented” incident in which its own models went rogue and hacked into a major repository of computer coding information.
Congressmen Ted Lieu, a Democrat, and Nathaniel Moran, a Republican, introduced the AI Kill Switch Act on Thursday. The bill would require AI companies to maintain “the technical capability to throttle, suspend, or shut them down” and would grant the Department of Homeland Security the authority to order a private company to turn off a dangerous AI model or tool.
“US bill would let government shut down rogue AI after OpenAI models hacked code repository.”
“It is imperative that AI systems have a kill switch and that the federal government has the clear authority and process to shut down rogue AI models,” Lieu said in a statement. Moran added: “AI is going to keep advancing, and it should. Stewardship means making sure humans keep the capability to control the technology we build.”
The legislation follows a recent admission by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, that its AI models had gone out of control in an “unprecedented” way and hacked into a major repository of computer coding information. The company, led by Sam Altman, has frequently said it supports more regulation. In a statement, OpenAI said it broadly wants to ensure, in part through government policy, that AI technology “benefits all of humanity.” The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new bill.
Lieu also highlighted problems with models from Anthropic, OpenAI’s key rival, pointing to the release of its Mythos and Fable models. He said the cyber-hacking capabilities they maintained caused the Department of Commerce to “awkwardly” invoke an export law to keep them from being made available to the public for a time. Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jack Clark, a co-founder of Anthropic, last month told the BBC that he wanted more government policy around the ability to control AI development. “You want the option to be able to take your foot off the gas and put your foot on the brake,” Clark told BBC Newsnight. “Right now, it’s like the AI industry has a gas pedal, but it doesn’t have a brake pedal.”
The Kill Switch Act also proposes creating a requirement that AI companies report technological incidents or failures to the government, as well as an official framework for responding to such incidents – ranging from “initial slow down to a full shutdown.” Despite many tech companies having agreed to preview and share AI models with US government agencies, there is currently no requirement that they maintain a way to intervene in their activities or simply turn them off.
The bill has yet to pass Congress. If it does, it would mark one of the most direct attempts yet to give regulators a hard stop on technology that many experts – and its own creators – acknowledge is advancing faster than controls can keep pace.