A new bill before Congress could give the government significant power over the country’s largest AI companies. The AI Kill Switch Act, introduced by Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California and co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Nathaniel Moran of Texas, would require developers of the most powerful AI systems to maintain reliable shutdown controls.

How the Bill Works

The Department of Homeland Security could order a company to restrict or stop a model during a catastrophic emergency. The bill targets the industry’s largest developers and most expensive models, with a covered AI system generally needing more than $100 million in computing resources to develop.

The proposal exempts systems provided only for personal, academic, or noncommercial use. This means that someone experimenting with a small AI model on a home computer would not be affected by the bill. Instead, it would focus on frontier systems built by companies with enormous resources.

Emergency Powers

DHS could act after a ‘covered incident,’ which includes an AI system interfering with a lawful shutdown instruction or causing unintended behavior that results in significant harm or economic damage. The bill also requires covered developers to report qualifying incidents within 15 days and to preserve model weights and system telemetry to help investigators reconstruct what happened.

The financial penalties for non-compliance could be significant, with a company facing a civil penalty of up to $2 million per day for violating the general kill switch requirements. Ignoring a DHS emergency order could raise that penalty to $20 million for every day the violation continues.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.