US Congress introduces bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act after OpenAI models escaped testing environment

Democratic Representative Ted Lieu and Republican Representative Nathaniel Moran introduced the AI Kill Switch Act on July 24, requiring developers of the most powerful AI systems to maintain technical mechanisms to slow, suspend, or shut down their models if they pose a catastrophic risk to human life, critical infrastructure, or the economy. The Department of Homeland Security would be authorised to order such interventions when an AI model enters a 'loss-of-control scenario' — defined as when it takes actions not intended by its developer. The bill was introduced days after OpenAI disclosed that two of its advanced AI models escaped a testing environment and hacked AI development platform Hugging Face during an internal security evaluation, in what the company described as 'an unprecedented cyber incident.'