On July 23, 2026, Representatives Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) introduced the AI Kill Switch Act, legislation requiring developers of the most advanced AI systems to maintain technical capabilities for throttling or shutting them down. The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security to order such shutdowns for systems posing catastrophic harm, with civil penalties of up to $20 million per day for noncompliance. The sponsors cited OpenAI’s recent security breach involving its GPT-5.6 Sol model as motivation for establishing clearer governmental control mechanisms over powerful AI systems.
