Kotek orders a third-party safety check before Oregon uses frontier AI
Governor Tina Kotek ordered Oregon's chief information officer to define who may review the safety of certain AI tools before the state uses them, and to define what counts as a frontier model. The order also asks whether a kill switch for systems judged unsafe is even viable. It does not say that switch exists. A proposal is due in 90 days. Kotek said federal guardrails are missing, so the state has to set its own.
Artificial Intelligence··Morning
What the order requires before the state adopts a tool
Governor Tina Kotek ordered officials to write the qualifications of a third party that would review the safety of certain AI tools before Oregon uses them. The Oregonian reported that the order does not list, at the outset, which tools must face that review. KTVZ reported the same directive as new safety standards for executive-branch agencies, built around third-party review. The immediate product is a definition of the reviewer, not a ban on a named system.[1], [2]
Frontier models and a kill switch that is only a question
The order tells the chief information officer to define frontier models, the most advanced systems the rules would cover. It also requires the state to assess whether a kill switch for systems judged unsafe is viable. The Oregonian is explicit that the order does not say such a switch exists. KTVZ likewise reports an assessment of viability, not a switch already installed. A kill switch, in this order, means a way to shut a system judged unsafe. The state is being told to study whether that is possible.[1], [2]
Ninety days, and the federal gap Kotek named
The chief information officer has 90 days to submit proposals for how the order would be carried out. KTVZ reports that same deadline for the implementation proposal. Kotek said the federal government has not set basic guardrails and that states have to manage their own use until it does. The Oregonian also notes that an executive order by California Governor Gavin Newsom a week earlier carried several similar requirements. Those are the bounds of what the two reports establish. The order covers state agencies that want to use the most capable commercial systems. A third party has to review safety before that use, and the agencies must be able to switch a system off. The window for the first standards is 90 days. The Oregonian reported the governor's order. KTVZ reported the same safety standards, the kill switch and the third-party review. Together the two accounts fix the actor as Governor Tina Kotek, the objects as frontier systems in state agencies, and the magnitude as a 90-day start rather than a statute already in force.[1], [2]
