Newsom: an AI kill switch. Independent audits. California, not the White House.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday to accelerate California’s AI safety laws and to study a “kill switch” — an emergency shutoff for frontier models — plus independent auditors inside the labs. Experts have two months. He said Washington is asleep. “Before it’s too late.” The States desk files California, not Miami, and a governor in the frame, not a capitol without him.

The order speeds SB 813 and AB 1405, the state’s new third-party oversight bills. Newsom asked Trump and Congress to take California’s framework as a floor. The president has called AI catastrophe talk a hoax and said the only guardrail the country needs is his presidency. The labs have asked for rules. Sacramento answered before the midterms, and before a federal statute that is not coming this week.

We’re going to speed up our work on substantial and responsible A.I. oversight before it’s too late.

The States desk files Friday night as it is: a kill switch on paper, a two-month clock in Sacramento, and a White House that will not write the statute. Musk said Dario was right. Trump said whoever wins with AI, wins. California did not wait for the midterms.