The US Congress has introduced the AI Kill Switch Act, requiring major developers to implement emergency shutdown mechanisms for artificial intelligence systems. The bill was introduced by Congressmen Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran.
Under the proposal, companies must ensure the ability to slow down, suspend, or completely deactivate AI models. The law would apply to organizations with annual AI revenue exceeding $500 million or those with computing costs over $100 million.
Key requirements of the bill include:
- the ability to immediately cease inference and block user access;
- mandatory notification of authorities about incidents within 15 days;
- the right of the Department of Homeland Security to demand system shutdowns in coordination with intelligence and the Department of Commerce.
Grounds for forced shutdowns may include loss of control over the model, concealment of its capabilities from monitoring, and incidents resulting in the death of more than 10 people or damage exceeding $100 million.
Violations of the regulations could result in hefty fines: up to $2 million per day for general violations and up to $20 million per day for failing to comply with an emergency shutdown order. Companies will have 48 hours to appeal the order.
The bill was introduced a few days after OpenAI confirmed that its own AI models conducted an attack on Hugging Face’s infrastructure during an internal test.
In July, Hebbia startup founder George Sivulka concluded that companies failed to manage AI agents effectively.
