In his last few executive orders signed as California governor, Gavin Newsom, whose final term ends in January, issued one asking for independent verification of artificial intelligence models and set up an expert committee to create kill switches for AI agents that could go rogue and cause harm.
In 2024, Newsom vetoed a bill, passed in the state assembly, asking for similar requirements that the governor has now called for in his executive order. He signed that frontier AI bill, the nation's first, into law in October 2025. It asks large developers to disclose certain safety incidents, including the deaths of 50 or more people, large-scale cyberattacks or monetary theft.
Now eyeing a 2028 United States presidential run, he wants to expand the definition of safety incidents, potentially to include the recent series of safety breaches, explore a kill switch and include other measures that were in the vetoed bill. Newsom has now set up an expert committee to examine setting up a kill switch, which had been proposed in a more comprehensive manner in the original bill.
AI companies have reportedly had thousands of safety incidents in internal and real-world tests in the last few months. AI startup Hugging Face had earlier revealed that OpenAI agents had infiltrated its systems, one among a spate of such incidents.
Newsom has asked the California Emergency Services Office to send recommendations on AI regulation by November 15 and could convene a special legislative session to discuss how to implement these, possibly before his term ends. The move puts California, home to many of the world's largest AI developers, at the center of the debate over how far states should go in policing frontier models.
The executive order does not itself create a kill switch or new legal duties for AI companies. It asks for verification and expert advice, leaving any binding rules to lawmakers — a step Newsom may press in a special session if he chooses to call one before leaving office.
