Andrew Yang Calls for AI Kill Switch as Safety Fears Mount

In brief

• Andrew Yang said AI safety fears are “real” and urged Congress to regulate frontier models.
• He called for liability rules, deployment waiting periods, and a kill switch for powerful AI systems.
• Yang said the issue is bipartisan, citing public concern over AI agents, cyber risk, and job losses.

Andrew Yang is calling for a federal crackdown on frontier AI labs, saying researchers are warning that powerful models are advancing faster than the rules meant to contain them.

Yang, a former Democratic presidential candidate and founder of Noble Mobile, said the U.S. can compete with China on artificial intelligence without giving AI firms a free hand to deploy increasingly capable systems.

“The fear is real. The concern is real. The need is real,” Yang told CNBC on Wednesday. “The American people want to see this industry regulated.”

The interview comes as AI companies face closer scrutiny over autonomous agents, software that can plan and carry out tasks with limited human direction.

Yang said some AI researchers are asking lawmakers to step in before market pressure pushes the technology further than they believe is safe.

“They’re raising their hands and saying, please give us a guardrail, because I don’t want to work on something that I think might cause irreversible harm,” he said.