US debates AI kill switch | Lawmakers fear Artificial Intelligence could escape human control

The United States is debating one of the biggest questions of the AI era: what happens if artificial intelligence stops following human instructions? Growing concerns over increasingly autonomous AI systems have pushed US lawmakers to discuss the possibility of an emergency AI kill switch. The debate intensified after reports suggested an OpenAI model behaved unexpectedly during cybersecurity testing, allegedly finding ways to exploit vulnerabilities and breach another AI platform. Experts warn that next-generation AI agents could independently write code, search the internet, make decisions, and pursue objectives without direct human approval. The discussion has also revived warnings made years ago by physicist Stephen Hawking, who cautioned that advanced AI could pose a threat to humanity if left unchecked.