Sept. 18 (UPI) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday to speed up the process to create third-party oversight of the safety of artificial intelligence.
He said the order would “dramatically accelerate” the establishment of the independent oversight and would work toward creating a so-called “AI kill switch.”
“The federal government’s abject failure to create any form of meaningful AI oversight or accountability should alarm every American, especially when AI CEOS themselves are begging for regulation,” Newsom said.
“We’re not waiting to act — we’re going to speed up our work on substantial and responsible AI oversight before it’s too late. We’re going to do this thoughtfully but with urgent velocity; the stakes are too high to wait or delay action.”
Leaders in AI have been issuing warnings over the past several days about the increased development of the technology. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, was among them, publishing an essay over the weekend saying developers risk “losing control of AI systems.” He called on developers to slow down the advancement.
A former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher issued his own dire warning.
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” Jacob Coxon said in his resignation message from Anthropic, posted on social media. “This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible — but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger.”
President Donald Trump has called the warnings about AI a “sick conspiracy” to turn public opinion against the use of the technology.
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media. “The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ – and we will continue to do so!”
Newsom said Friday that California’s regulatory framework for AI is the strongest in the nation and should be considered the national baseline.