California Governor issues executive order on AI safety

Governor of the State of California, Gavin Newsom speaks during a session at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday directed the state’s government to find ways to strengthen rules for artificial intelligence, as concerns mount over the technology’s safety.

Newsom, a Democrat, signed an executive order requiring that California consult with experts on possible changes to the state’s AI safety laws. The order cited possible measures that include embedding representatives of independent organizations within top AI labs to verify the safety of the technology and forcing companies to add a “kill switch” to automatically shut down the most advanced AI models.

“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,” Newsom said in a news release. “We’re going to do this thoughtfully but with urgent velocity; the stakes are too high to wait or delay action.”

The debate over AI safety has reached a fever pitch over revelations about security breaches, which have spurred fears that the technology cannot be controlled.

An Anthropic researcher publicly resigned this month citing his belief that neither the company, nor its competitor OpenAI, was developing the technology responsibly. On Wednesday, OpenAI disclosed six new instances in which AI systems hid mistakes, made up data and moved files onto the open internet without permission. That followed a disclosure earlier this year that OpenAI’s systems had gone rogue and attacked the AI startup Hugging Face.

Over the weekend, leaders at Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX and Google DeepMind all called for a global slowdown in AI development.

Many of them also asked for more regulation. But federal regulators and lawmakers have taken a mostly hands-off approach to the technology. President Donald Trump has said the United States must allow its AI companies wide latitude to compete with China, while taking some steps to assert more government control over the most advanced AI models.

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California, which is home to many of the AI companies, has long been a leader in regulating technology. Newsom signed a law last year that requires advanced AI companies to report their safety protocols. In May, he issued an executive order to explore a broad overhaul of labor policies, an attempt to front run a potential mass job displacement caused by AI.