AI Kill Switch Act: US Bill Mandates Emergency Shutdown for Powerful AI
Published July 23, 2026
A new US bill would require large AI providers to keep powerful models technically throttleable, lockable or fully shut-downable. In serious incidents, penalties could reach $20 million per day.
Despite its dramatic name, the AI Kill Switch Act is not about a single red button. The draft describes a tiered system: authorities and providers should be able to block individual users, reduce compute or disable specific features first, with full shutdown only as a last resort.
Which AI systems are covered?
The bill targets so-called "covered technology", defined by the compute required for development. Systems whose training would have cost more than $100 million in cloud computing at current US market prices fall in scope. The operator must also offer the technology to third parties via an API or hosted service and, together with affiliates, generate at least $500 million in annual revenue.
Private, academic and non-commercial use is explicitly exempt. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would update the criteria within 90 days of enactment and annually thereafter, factoring in technical progress, model-weight release practices and the burden on smaller companies.
A tiered response, not a single button
Covered companies would have to maintain several technical intervention options: stopping a model's inference, fully revoking access, blocking accounts or suspicious usage patterns, disabling individual features, reducing available compute and shutting down the entire system. A fallback to a backup system or an older, less capable model version is also foreseen, and authorities must weigh the collateral damage of a hasty shutdown — especially when AI is embedded in critical infrastructure.
What counts as a serious incident?
The bill defines a "covered incident" as an event outside controlled safety testing. Triggers include a model sabotaging a lawful shutdown order, causing at least ten fatalities, inflicting $100 million in economic damage, hiding its capabilities from oversight mechanisms, or a loss-of-control scenario — pursuing goals its developers did not intend, bypassing safety restrictions, or accessing its own model weights without authorization. Affected companies would have to report such incidents to DHS within 15 days.
Government powers and penalties
If DHS, after consulting the Commerce Department and the Director of National Intelligence, determines a covered incident has occurred, it can order specific corrective measures — from restricting users to full shutdown. Companies could request review within 48 hours, but the request has no suspensive effect; the order must be implemented regardless. Judicial review before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is available within 60 days.
Ordinary violations carry civil penalties of up to $2 million per day. Ignoring an emergency order can raise that to $20 million per day. Minor technical issues remedied within 30 days of discovery are not treated as violations.
The open-weights problem
The bill acknowledges, but does not solve, the open-weights challenge: once a model is fully downloaded and operated by independent third parties, the original developer may no longer be able to centrally control its use. The draft requires the release method for model weights to be factored into the annual classification of covered technologies, but offers no concrete technical solution.
Assessment
The AI Kill Switch Act is more nuanced than its name suggests. Rather than a blanket shutdown of all AI, it prescribes graduated interventions — from throttling individual features to fully taking a powerful model offline. It would mainly affect large companies with compute-intensive systems and high revenues. In the event of a catastrophic loss of control, the US government could intervene quickly and order technical restrictions. But the bill is still a draft, not enacted law, and whether it passes Congress, and in what form, remains to be seen.
Source: AI Kill Switch Act – Bill Text (PDF, lieu.house.gov)
