California’s Newsom ordered stronger frontier-AI safety rules (and possible kill switches)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed an executive order aimed at the risks of artificial intelligence, putting the state on a faster track toward tougher rules for the most advanced systems.

The timing matters. A researcher at Anthropic recently quit and warned publicly about AI’s potentially humanity-ending capabilities, which helped trigger a fresh scramble in Washington over what guardrails, if any, should exist. Congress looks unlikely to pass meaningful AI legislation before the 2026 midterm elections, and President Donald Trump has so far pushed back on regulation.

Newsom leaned hard into that gap. He said the federal government’s failure to create meaningful AI oversight should alarm Americans, and he framed California’s work as urgent rather than symbolic. The order gives a group of experts two months to draw up a guide for strengthening the state’s AI safety and security laws.

Those possible changes go beyond broad principles. According to Newsom’s office, they could include requiring independent third parties to write safety plans for frontier AI companies, or forcing companies to build a “kill switch” that could shut down models in an emergency. Newsom also pointed to a state law he signed earlier this month creating a framework for third-party AI auditors, and he said California should serve as the national baseline while Washington stalls.