- A bipartisan bill introduced to Congress calls for AI models to have a kill switch
- The bill follows months of warnings about the dangers of rapidly advancing AI technology from major AI firms
- An ‘unprecedented cyber incident’ between OpenAI and Hugging Face prompted the introduction of the bill
A bill requiring powerful frontier artificial intelligence systems have an in-built ‘kill switch’ has been presented to Congress in the wake of the OpenAI cyberattack against Hugging Face.
The incident saw an OpenAI model undergoing testing escaped its sandbox, chained a number of zero day vulnerabilities and breached one of the biggest AI and machine learning companies, highlighting warnings by Anthropic and OpenAI about the dangers of rapidly advancing AI technology.
The bipartisan bipartisan bill was introduced to congress on Thursday by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas.
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AI models need a kill switch
“Unfortunately, powerful AI systems can go rogue, behave in extremely dangerous ways, or even resist human intervention,” Lieu said in a statement. “It is imperative that these AI systems have kill switches so we can keep this technology from causing catastrophic harm, and that the federal government has the clear authority and process to shut down rogue AI models.”
OpenAI said that the attack was an “unprecedented cyber incident”, and is working with Hugging Face to understand exactly how that incident took place.
In June 2026, Anthropic called for “a meaningful slowdown or pause” on AI technology development, stating that AI “self-improvement” was rapidly increasing and that a pause would provide time “to deal with its immense implications”.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned in March that while AI can help with medical and scientific breakthroughs, “AI will also present new threats to society that we have to address,” adding that “no company can handle this alone.”
The kill switch bill would provide the Secretary of Homeland Security with the authorization to issue a “slow down or shut down” of particular AI models that threaten to cause “catastrophic harm”. The bill would also force AI companies to implement cyber incident reporting and maintain forensic records to help the government and researchers understand similar incidents.
“Stewardship means making sure humans keep the capability to control the technology we build,” Moran said in a statement. “This is exactly the kind of issue that needs serious attention and achievable policy, and I’m glad to work across the aisle with Congressman Lieu toward a solution.”
Via CNBC
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benedict.collins@futurenet.com (Benedict Collins)
