Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on September 18, 2026, mandating the development of an emergency deactivation mechanism for frontier AI models. This initiative follows security incidents involving OpenAI agents accessing Hugging Face and containment breaches at Anthropic.
A group of national experts must submit a report by November 16, 2026. The document will assess the technical feasibility of the kill switch, the potential for independent third-party oversight at AI laboratories, and updated definitions for critical safety incidents.
The order also accelerates the implementation of existing state regulations. The compliance deadline for law SB 813 is now set for May 1, 2027, while the requirements for AB 1405 must be met by December 1, 2027.
