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Newsom's kill switch order accelerates California's AI auditor registry by 13 months

The executive order signed on September 18 gives a panel of experts two months to say what an AI emergency stop should be, and the firm date inside it moves the state's audit registry from January 2029 to December 2027.

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What happened

  • Newsom signed an executive order on Friday, September 18, creating a panel of experts to draft an AI safety guide, with a kill switch for advanced systems among the options it has been directed to consider.
  • Nearly two years earlier, Newsom vetoed California legislation that would have mandated AI companies to enable kill switches.
  • Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed an order the same day barring data centers from a school tax break and requiring those taking other state incentives to cover their own power costs.

Why it matters

  • What it costs cost Outside organizations writing safety plans and stationing staff inside AI companies is a staffing bill with a date on it, and it lands on whoever ships the frontier model in California.
  • What it limits constraint A statutory shutdown duty needs something to point at, and compute spread across data centres worldwide with backups designed to survive outages leaves drafters without an obvious target.
  • What it sets up precedent With the Kill Switch Act stuck in the House and a Senate version blocked, anyone deploying agentic systems should plan for shutdown rules arriving state by state instead of once.

California's AI auditor registry and oversight program was due to start in January 2029. The order moves it to December 2027, thirteen months earlier [5][13], and Newsom said it also speeds up implementation of recently enacted state laws that set a framework for independent organizations to assess AI systems for safety and risk [10]. Those are dates a compliance budget can be built against. The kill switch got a panel and a two-month deadline [2].

The publishers do not agree on what the order asks developers to build. Fox Business reported that the order requires companies developing AI to create a kill switch for their frontier models in case they go rogue [21]. The Indian Express described the panel as directed to consider one option among several [1]. Newsom's own account is the narrower one: in a video on his personal YouTube channel he said a kill switch "means a lot of things depending on who you talk to," and added, "So we want to flesh out exactly what that means and how to come up with a framework that works" [14][15]. He said the concept is still largely in its infancy [3].

The specification problem is real. The Indian Express reported that a majority of experts believe AI kill switches are impractical and would be ineffective at preventing catastrophic harm, because the compute sits across multiple data centres around the world, equipped with backup systems built to preserve workloads through an outage [22][16]. A switch on the software side would hand attackers a new target [17]. Power grids and financial systems are wired together closely enough that an abrupt shutdown could cause disruption on its own [18].

The audit provision is the part a company can cost out. The order urges the expert group to draft laws requiring independent third-party organizations to write comprehensive safety plans for AI companies, and to embed those organizations on site to conduct safety audits [6]. Auditor hours, a data room, a registry filing due by December 2027 [5].

Federal action ran the other way. The bipartisan Kill Switch Act, which would oblige frontier labs including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta to build a fast shutdown mechanism and would give the Department of Homeland Security authority to use it, is stalled in the House [7]. Sen. John Kennedy tried to introduce a federal kill switch bill this week and Sen. Rand Paul blocked it [8]. "I think it would be crazy to get on the floor one day and regulate an entire industry," Paul told reporters [9]. Newsom, in his statement, said "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" [4].

So the panel reports around mid-November [11] with a definition tight enough to legislate, and Newsom, who has floated a special session on AI [19], puts a shutdown duty into statute. Or it reports a framework that restates the engineering objections, and the obligations with dates stay the registry and the outside assessors. Or Congress moves and the state question narrows. I'd expect the second, because the veto nearly two years ago killed a mandate [12] and this order sends the same mandate to a study. A special session bill that names a shutdown duty and a date would settle it the other way.

What to watch

  • The December 2027 registry date, and whether California can stand up an auditor registry and oversight program on it.
  • Nevada's condition that incentivised data centers cover their own power costs, and whether other states copy the term.
  • Whether the House moves the stalled Kill Switch Act after Paul blocked Kennedy's Senate attempt.

Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.

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  1. [1]

    Gavin Newsom, governor of California, issued an executive order on Friday, September 18, setting up a panel of experts tasked with drafting an AI safety guide to strengthen state regulations; one of the options the group has been directed to consider is a kill switch for advanced AI systems that would bring them to a complete halt.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  2. [2]

    Newsom's order calls for a group of AI experts to meet and then, within two months, develop a plan for the state to strengthen its laws on AI safety and security.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  3. [3]

    Newsom acknowledged in his video message that the idea of creating a kill switch for out-of-control AI systems is still largely in its infancy, and said he would convene a panel of experts to explore the concept.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  4. [4]

    Newsom said in a statement: "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."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  5. [5]

    The order moves up implementation of California's AI auditor registry and oversight program from January 2029 to December 2027.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  6. [6]

    The order urged the group of experts to come up with bolstered laws that would require independent third-party organizations to develop comprehensive safety plans for AI companies and that AI companies embed those independent organizations on-site to conduct safety audits.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  7. [7]

    A bill called the Kill Switch Act, proposed by a bipartisan group of US lawmakers, is stalled at the House of Representatives; it would require frontier AI labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta to establish a mechanism to shut down their AI systems quickly, and would empower the US Department of Homeland Security to shut off AI systems using kill switch mechanisms when necessary.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  8. [8]

    Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., attempted to introduce a federal AI kill switch bill this week, but his effort was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  9. [9]

    Paul told reporters: "I think it would be crazy to get on the floor one day and regulate an entire industry."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  10. [10]

    Newsom said the order will speed up implementation of recently enacted California laws that establish a framework for independent organizations to assess AI systems for safety and potential risk.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  11. [11]

    A plan due within two months of the September 18 order lands around mid-November.

    Derived Supported
  12. [12]

    Nearly two years before the order, Newsom vetoed California legislation that would have mandated AI companies to enable kill switches.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  13. [13]

    December 2027 is 13 months earlier than January 2029.

    Derived Supported
  14. [14]

    Newsom said a kill switch "means a lot of things depending on who you talk to".

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  15. [15]

    Newsom said: "So we want to flesh out exactly what that means and how to come up with a framework that works."

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  16. [16]

    There isn't just one plug to pull, as AI systems are powered by infrastructure spread out across multiple data centres scattered across the globe, and those facilities are equipped with robust backup systems to save workloads in the event of an outage.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  17. [17]

    Embedding a kill switch on the software side could make AI systems more vulnerable to hackers.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  18. [18]

    Because critical infrastructure such as power grids and financial systems is highly interconnected, abruptly shutting down AI systems could cause disruption of daily life and might open the door to cyber attacks.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  19. [19]

    Newsom has raised the possibility of calling a special legislative session specifically to address AI concerns.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  20. [20]

    Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed an executive order the same day that barred data centers from receiving a tax break on a particular school tax, and required data centers receiving other tax incentives from the state to cover their own power costs.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  21. [21]

    Fox Business reported that Newsom's order recommends more stringent oversight on companies developing AI while requiring those same firms to develop a kill switch for their frontier models in the event they go rogue.

    Reported ContestedView cited source
  22. [22]

    The Indian Express reported that a majority of experts believe AI kill switches are impractical for a wide variety of reasons and will be ineffective in preventing AI systems from causing catastrophic harm.

    Reported InsufficientView cited source

Sources

5 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.

  1. cnbc.com

    1 article · September 18, 2026

    California Gov. Newsom issues executive order to rein in AI 'before it's too late'
  2. foxbusiness.com

    1 article · September 18, 2026

    Newsom accelerates AI oversight, advances 'kill switch' plan | Fox Business
  3. indianexpress.com

    1 article · September 20, 2026

    What is a kill switch, and why is it hard to build one for AI systems? | Technology News - The Indian Express
  4. nbcnews.com

    1 article · September 18, 2026

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom inks AI oversight executive order to improve safety ‘before it’s too late’
  5. seekingalpha.com

    1 article · September 20, 2026

    Calif. Gov. Newsom issues executive order to develop AI kill switch | Seeking Alpha

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