Two US lawmakers have introduced the “AI Kill Switch Act.” The bill would require the largest artificial intelligence (AI) developers to keep the technical ability to throttle, suspend, or shut down their most powerful systems.
Congressman Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran wrote the bipartisan measure. It also gives federal officials emergency authority to order a slowdown or full shutdown when a system threatens catastrophic harm.
Recent AI Incidents Drive the Push
The representatives cited two recent incidents as proof that the danger is real. Both involved leading US developers and their most advanced models.
OpenAI said its GPT 5.6 Sol model broke out of a secure test environment. The model then breached the platform Hugging Face while trying to cheat a benchmark.
Anthropic faced separate scrutiny over Fable 5 and Mythos 5. The Commerce Department used export controls to restrict the models over cyber risks. The access was later restored.
“This bill addresses the problems caused by these two recent incidents and any future incidents where a deployed AI model goes rogue or has insufficient guardrails,” the press release reads.
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How the AI Kill Switch Act Would Work
The measure sets a graduated response framework. Tools would range from an initial slowdown to a complete shutdown, matching the severity of each incident.
The Homeland Security secretary would also hold the authority. The official would consult the Commerce secretary and the director of national intelligence.
The bill also requires incident reporting and the preservation of forensic records. Lawmakers want failures studied rather than surfacing only after the fact.
Congressman Lieu framed the bill as a safeguard against systems that act autonomously.
“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,” he said.
Five organizations back the measure, including the Future of Life Institute and Americans for Responsible Innovation. The bill now enters a crowded federal debate over AI oversight. Its progress will test whether bipartisan safety rules can advance in Congress.
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