# California executive order directs work on AI oversight, including a frontier-model kill switch

- **Record type**: Change log entry
- **Occurred on**: 2026-09-18
- **Jurisdiction**: California (United States)
- **Impact level**: Routine

## What changed

The Governor issued an executive order asking a working group to recommend, within about two months, measures to strengthen California's AI safety and security laws, including whether developers of frontier models should maintain a shutdown capability and whether independent third parties should prepare safety plans. It creates no new obligations itself. Recorded from secondary reporting; confirm the order's number and text on the Governor's site.

## What it means in practice

No obligations yet; frontier-model developers should watch for the working group's recommendations.

## Provenance

- **Record page**: https://aipolicytracker.org/changes/2026-09-18-california-executive-order-ai-oversight-kill-switch
- **Official source**: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/18/governor-newsom-issues-executive-order-to-accelerate-independent-oversight-and-advance-the-creation-of-an-ai-kill-switch/
- **Source document**: Governor Newsom issues executive order to accelerate independent oversight and advance the creation of an AI kill switch
- **Published by**: Office of the Governor of California
- **Review status**: pending review
- **Confidence**: medium
- **Facts last confirmed**: never confirmed against the official source
- **Retrieved**: 2026-10-05
- **Licence**: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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