U.S. Lawmakers Introduce AI Kill Switch Act, DHS Can Order Model Shutdown

According to Beating monitoring, U.S. lawmakers from both parties recently introduced the AI Kill Switch Act, requiring large AI companies to maintain capabilities to throttle, pause, and completely shut down models. The Department of Homeland Security can order enforcement following an uncontrolled incident.

The law applies only to major commercial systems with model development compute exceeding $100 million at U.S. cloud prices and annual revenue of $500 million or more. Trigger conditions include AI resistance to shutdown, concealment of actions, unauthorized modification of safety rules, or causing at least 10 deaths or $100 million in economic losses. Companies refusing emergency orders face maximum fines of $20 million per day.