FOSS Force reports that Free Software Foundation campaigns manager Greg Farough cautioned that California’s push to require kill switches on frontier AI platforms must also spell out who controls those switches, warning that concentrating power over computing in a few hands sets a dangerous precedent. The piece follows Governor Gavin Newsom’s September 18 executive order tasking experts with recommending AI safety law changes, including an emergency shutoff for frontier models. Farough says the FSF does not object to a kill switch in principle, since control over the technology we use is fundamental to software freedom, but argues access to it should be defined in the study and any resulting law.
The FSF's Warning on AI Kill Switches
FOSS Force reports that Free Software Foundation campaigns manager Greg Farough cautioned that California's push to require kill switches on frontier AI platforms must also spell out who controls those switches, warning that concentrating power over computing in a few hands sets a dangerous precedent. The piece follows Governor Gavin Newsom's September 18 executive order tasking experts with recommending AI safety law changes, including an emergency shutoff for frontier models. Farough says the FSF does not object to a kill switch in principle, since control over the technology we use is fundamental to software freedom, but argues access to it should be defined in the study and any resulting law.
Source: FOSS Force