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What do you actually do about a rogue AI?

A new AI Kill Switch Act would let the U.S. government order AI systems shut down after dangerous incidents, following an OpenAI security breach

Photo by Omer Urer/Anadolu via Getty Images

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American lawmakers introduced a bill called the AI Kill Switch Act last week. If passed, it would give the federal government legal authority to force AI companies to shut down a model that's gone haywire, and require those companies to build in the technical means to do it.

The bill arrived days after OpenAI disclosed one of the clearest examples yet of why lawmakers think such authority may be necessary. That episode has reopened a question people have been stewing on since long before ChatGPT existed. If something we built starts acting on its own and we don't like where it's headed, can we actually turn it off?

Where things stand with OpenAI

Here are more details about why we are wringing our hands again: OpenAI had reduced the normal cyber safeguards on two of its models, including a........

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