California speeds up on AI safety and weighs the kill switch question

On 18 September 2026 California Governor Gavin Newsom signed executive order N-9-26 to strengthen oversight of artificial intelligence systems. What we know about the measure comes from the press release put out by the governor's office, because the text of the signed file could not be accessed for direct data extraction. According to the release, the order tasks the Government Operations Agency, working with the state office of emergency services, with setting up an expert group that has two months to deliver guidance for strengthening state laws on AI safety and security.

The group will be asked to assess the adoption of safety plans drawn up by third parties, independent audits inside the labs, and the inclusion of loss-of-control events among critical incidents. Emergency shutdown for frontier models is one of the items on the list: the official release — and NBC News, which describes an order urging the experts to consider the measure — makes clear that as of today the act does not require any provider to install such a mechanism. I am reporting NBC's wording indirectly because it reached me in translation and I could not check it against the original. The initiative also speeds up the implementation of two separate state laws: SB 813 (McNerney), which sets up a framework for independent verification organizations for AI systems, and AB 1405 (Bauer-Kahan), which creates a state registry of AI auditors with independence and transparency requirements. On that registry, the broadcaster Fox Business reported an early start in December 2027, although the administration's official note cites no detailed deadlines.

The state-level move throws the split with federal institutions into relief. According to Fox Business, this week Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked in the Senate a bill on emergency shutdown of models introduced by Senator John Kennedy (R-La.): the rift runs inside the same party, not between the state and Washington. In the release, Newsom argues that California has already built a national model and that state policy should become the baseline for the country; I report the line indirectly because it is available only in translation. What remains undefined are the technical parameters for deactivating models already released with open weights or running on outside infrastructure — a limit that, according to Fox Business, Newsom himself concedes. Who will sit on the expert group is unknown, and the order offers no guarantee that its recommendations will become law: in California the process would start over from scratch.

Chasing safety with procedural deadlines risks staying a formal exercise unless someone first spells out how, in practice, you switch off software distributed on a global scale. — Olya