U.S. Congress bill would require a kill switch for AI systems trained on $100M+
rohanpaul_ai · x · 2026-07-25
Congress bill would force frontier AI systems to have a kill switch
A bipartisan House bill would require a working kill switch for AI systems that cost $100M+ to train. Enforcement would sit with DHS, because the proposal amends the Homeland Security Act.
- Covered systems start at $100M training compute and $500M annual revenue.
- Developers must be able to stop inference, cut user access, and shut the system down.
- DHS could also order throttling, disabling, or full shutdown after consulting Commerce and the intelligence director.
- Sabotaging a shutdown command would be punishable; incidents causing 10 deaths or $100M damage trigger reporting.
- Companies would have to report within 15 days and preserve weights and telemetry after an order.
- Fines could reach $2M/day, rising to $20M/day for defying an emergency order.
The post also notes a core limitation: hosted models can be stopped, but downloaded weights may not obey a kill switch at all.
Related event: US House Proposes AI Kill Switch Act Amid OpenAI Security Incidents(7 posts)→
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