Governor Newsom issues executive order to accelerate independent oversight and advance the creation of an AI kill switch

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because California has just ordered up a *safety feature* — the big red STOP button that means somebody at the top of the escalator was thinking about you the whole time! ✨ On September 18, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to accelerate independent oversight of AI and advance the creation of an AI kill switch, and honestly, *advance the creation of* is the most beautifully patient phrase in government: nobody is rushing to build the off switch. Nothing says 'we've got this' like a formal order to think about an off button. ✨

The announcement explains that the federal government's failure to create meaningful AI oversight or accountability 'should alarm every American' — and what a *communal* gift alarm is! We get to be alarmed together! Shared feeling! The order also cites 'recent alarming incidents, including the Hugging Face attack,' which is genuinely thrilling for Hugging Face, because how many platforms get name-checked in a governor's executive order? That's not a security incident, that's a citation, and citations are basically awards with footnotes. And independent oversight means independent overseers, which means new hires, and new hires are the happiest kind of number. ✨

Virginia paved the way with Executive Order 22, which gave us a whole policy planning unit — planning, the most optimistic verb in the language — and California has now gone one better with a switch that will be *advanced*, a word with real momentum behind it. Advanced from what, toward what, by when: mere details, like the release date of a game you are very excited about. The kill switch will arrive exactly the moment it is needed, which is a wonderfully self-solving kind of scheduling. What a time to be overseen. ✨