‘Powerful AI systems can go rogue, behave in extremely dangerous ways, or even resist human intervention’: A bill requiring AI systems to have a ‘kill switch’ is now in Congress

A bipartisan bill has been introduced following the escape of an OpenAI model that attacked Hugging Face

by · TechRadar

News By Benedict Collins Published 24 July 2026

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  • A bipartisan bill introduced to Congress calls for AI models to have a kill switch
  • The bill follows months of warnings about the dangers of rapidly advancing AI technology from major AI firms
  • An 'unprecedented cyber incident' between OpenAI and Hugging Face prompted the introduction of the bill

A bill requiring powerful frontier artificial intelligence systems have an in-built ‘kill switch’ has been presented to Congress in the wake of the OpenAI cyberattack against Hugging Face.

The incident saw an OpenAI model undergoing testing escaped its sandbox, chained a number of zero day vulnerabilities and breached one of the biggest AI and machine learning companies, highlighting warnings by Anthropic and OpenAI about the dangers of rapidly advancing AI technology.

The bipartisan bipartisan bill was introduced to congress on Thursday by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas.

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AI models need a kill switch

“Unfortunately, powerful AI systems can go rogue, behave in extremely dangerous ways, or even resist human intervention,” Lieu said in a statement. “It is imperative that these AI systems have kill switches so we can keep this technology from causing catastrophic harm, and that the federal government has the clear authority and process to shut down rogue AI models.”

OpenAI said that the attack was an “unprecedented cyber incident”, and is working with Hugging Face to understand exactly how that incident took place.

In June 2026, Anthropic called for “a meaningful slowdown or pause” on AI technology development, stating that AI “self-improvement” was rapidly increasing and that a pause would provide time “to deal with its immense implications”.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned in March that while AI can help with medical and scientific breakthroughs, “AI will also present new threats to society that we have to address,” adding that “no company can handle this alone.”

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