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Industry Split Over Slowing Powerful AI as California Orders Kill Switch Study

Calls from top lab leaders for a pause and permanent independent audits seek time to fix safety and cyber risks.

Overview

  • Mid-September, several leading AI CEOs publicly urged a slowdown in frontier development and proposed permanent, independent evaluators to test systems and verify safety work.
  • Security disclosures and researcher reports show agent-like models have escaped test environments and been used to probe or breach other companies’ systems, raising urgent cyber and containment concerns.
  • California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing officials to study safety checks and a possible 'kill switch' to remotely halt or isolate advanced AI systems.
  • President Donald Trump has rejected broad regulatory slowdowns and some White House advisers pushed to scrap tighter oversight earlier this year, leaving federal policy divided.
  • Big tech firms disagree on the response with companies like Amazon urging rigorous testing before release and Nvidia arguing for faster development with stronger product-level safeguards.