UK government rejects legal “kill switch” for dangerous AI

The UK government has rejected proposals for a legal “kill switch” that could shut down an artificial intelligence model during an emergency involving rogue behaviour.

The Cabinet Office, which leads on AI safety, said the UK “cannot simply turn AI off”. A spokesperson told BBC News that blocking access to models in the UK would not prevent them from being developed or misused elsewhere.

The proposal was raised in the House of Lords on 1 September by Lord Clement-Jones and later brought up in the Commons by Labour MP Alex Sobel, with support from MPs across parties. The government’s opposition does not stop the legislation progressing through Parliament, but makes it unlikely to become law.

Former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajilo said a single country could not create a feasible legal or technical kill switch without international agreement. He argued that politicians should instead focus on diplomacy with the US and regulation that could slow AI development.

Kokotajilo co-authored AI2027, a research paper that predicted AI could wipe out humans by the mid-2030s. A senior Anthropic researcher has said there is a greater than 10% chance AI will “kill all humans” within the next decade.

The Cabinet Office said companies have a clear responsibility to develop products safely and invest in the required security infrastructure.