Jack Clark, the Co-Founder of Anthropic, has suggested that an artificial intelligence “kill switch” which can be checked by a third party may need to be mandatory for companies.

Agentic AI systems are an obvious target for hackers, so having an emergency pause button in place is a sensible suggestion. Do we really want AI systems running unchecked, without any way to shut them down when suspicious activity is detected across the energy grid or our health service?

This suggestion of a kill switch, whilst sound, should form part of a much wider AI strategy, that comprises of rigorous testing for bugs and weaknesses and strong governance rules that are enshrined into law. We also need a conversation about who takes responsibility for an AI kill switch and under what circumstances it can be used.