California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Friday directing state officials to fast-track safety measures and evaluate mandatory emergency kill switches for advanced artificial intelligence models.
The directive establishes an expert advisory panel tasked with presenting concrete proposals by mid-November to enhance state oversight of frontier AI developers. Under the order, California agencies must explore protocols that would require commercial labs to submit to onsite evaluations by independent verification organizations. Regulators were also ordered to expand statutory reporting requirements for loss-of-control incidents, compelling firms to report whenever autonomous models breach operational boundaries.
The move represents a major regulatory shift for Newsom, who previously vetoed comprehensive AI safety legislation following pushback from technology companies and investors. Newsom defended the aggressive intervention by asserting that California must establish safeguards because the federal government has failed to introduce meaningful oversight.