Newsom Issues Executive Order on AI, Citing Federal Government's 'Abject Failure'

California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order to address the dangers of artificial intelligence. The order comes after a researcher at Anthropic resigned and warned of AI's potentially humanity-ending capabilities on social media earlier this month.

Newsom, who is part of a group of 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls, has urged a more aggressive regulatory approach to the rapidly evolving technology. He stated that the federal government's failure to create meaningful AI oversight or accountability 'should alarm every American.'

The order calls on a group of experts to meet and create a guide for the state to strengthen its AI safety and security laws within two months. The enhanced laws may include requirements for independent third parties to write safety plans for frontier AI companies or mandating that companies develop a 'kill switch' to shut down their models in case of emergency.

Newsom has touted California's existing AI regulatory framework, which includes a law he signed earlier this month creating a framework for third-party AI auditors. He stated, 'California has already built a national model, and our policy should be the national baseline.'