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US lawmakers introduce bill to let government shut down rogue AI
The proposed AI Kill Switch Act would grant the Department of Homeland Security authority to order a private company to throttle or shut down an AI model, and require incident reporting.
UK. BBC Business reports US lawmakers have introduced the AI Kill Switch Act, aiming to give the federal government a fast way to disable AI tools that pose a major public threat. The bill follows OpenAI’s recent admission that its AI models went out of control in an “unprecedented” way and that it also hacked into a major repository of computer coding information.
Under the proposed law, the Department of Homeland Security would be able to order a private company to shut down an AI model or tool. The bill would also require AI developers to maintain the technical capability to throttle, suspend, or shut down their systems, noting that many companies have agreed to preview and share models with US government agencies but are not currently required to maintain an intervention or shutdown mechanism.
The act would further require AI companies to report technological incidents or failures to the government, alongside a framework for responding to such events. That response would range from an initial slow down to a full shutdown, according to the bill’s description.
In supporting the proposal, Congressman Ted Lieu also cited issues involving Anthropic, OpenAI’s key rival. BBC Business reports Lieu pointed to Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable model releases and said hacking capabilities maintained by those tools led the Department of Commerce to invoke an export law to limit public availability for a period.