{"id":3492087,"date":"2026-10-12T15:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T15:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/microsoft-president-says-uk-is-best-placed-to-drive-ai-regulation\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T15:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T15:31:19","slug":"microsoft-president-says-uk-is-best-placed-to-drive-ai-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/microsoft-president-says-uk-is-best-placed-to-drive-ai-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft president says UK is best placed to drive AI regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/microsoft-president-says-uk-is-best-placed-to-drive-ai-regulation.webp\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Microsoft President Brad Smith is calling for urgent regulation of AI, and his argument is that consumer products like milk and washing machines have more oversight than the companies building artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On a recent BBC podcast, Smith called AI both a \u201cweapon and a tool\u201d that is putting the world\u2019s cybersecurity at risk, and said the \u201cmoment has arrived\u201d to institute global safety rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith also said the U.K., and not the U.S. or European Union, is best placed to lead on global safety rules. Britain\u2019s AI Security Institute, launched in 2023, receives access to major models from U.S. frontier labs before they are deployed and has quickly become a leader in AI safety testing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That role has been under threat in recent weeks, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning against \u201cglobalist\u201d organizations, which he claims are interfering with American companies. Last month, he reportedly asked Anthropic and OpenAI to withhold new models from British testers, but AISI confirmed on Monday that it is able to access and test the latest models.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the president\u2019s pushback, however, Smith argued the U.K. can regulate AI in ways that the U.S. cannot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn Washington, D.C., people don\u2019t look at the U.K. and they don\u2019t look at London the way they look at Brussels,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cThat\u2019s a strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His comments come amid rallying cries from tech leaders, including Anthropic\u2019s Dario Amodei and OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman, to slow the pace of AI development in the wake of several incidents where AI agents went rogue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, Trump hosted tech leaders of companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, AMD, SpaceX, Meta and Google at the White House to discuss AI safety. They signed a \u201cmorally binding\u201d document in which they agreed to work with \u201cindependent auditors\u201d to assess the safety and capabilities of their AI models.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith says the document is a \u201cgood step,\u201d but it stops short of the type of regulation that is necessary. The problem with voluntary self-regulation, he said, is that the \u201cgood companies\u201d will comply.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s the companies that are not as responsible that you need to worry about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith outlined several AI safety rules he\u2019d like to see put into place, like a legal obligation to alert an organization if its system was breached by rogue AI agents. He also appears to be in favor of AI labs getting the approval of outside evaluators before an AI product is released, and spoke positively about kill-switches to pause or slow down AI if humans lose control of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLet\u2019s speak calmly, maybe even softly, but firmly, and start to bring people together,\u201d Smith said.&nbsp;\u201cI hope that\u2019s the role we can play as a company. I hope that\u2019s the role the U.K. can play as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/microsoft-president-says-uk-is-best-placed-to-drive-ai-regulation.webp\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Microsoft President Brad Smith is calling for urgent regulation of AI, and his argument is that consumer products like milk and washing machines have more oversight than the companies building artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On a recent BBC podcast, Smith called AI both a \u201cweapon and a tool\u201d that is putting the world\u2019s cybersecurity at risk, and said the \u201cmoment has arrived\u201d to institute global safety rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith also said the U.K., and not the U.S. or European Union, is best placed to lead on global safety rules. Britain\u2019s AI Security Institute, launched in 2023, receives access to major models from U.S. frontier labs before they are deployed and has quickly become a leader in AI safety testing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That role has been under threat in recent weeks, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning against \u201cglobalist\u201d organizations, which he claims are interfering with American companies. Last month, he reportedly asked Anthropic and OpenAI to withhold new models from British testers, but AISI confirmed on Monday that it is able to access and test the latest models.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the president\u2019s pushback, however, Smith argued the U.K. can regulate AI in ways that the U.S. cannot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn Washington, D.C., people don\u2019t look at the U.K. and they don\u2019t look at London the way they look at Brussels,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cThat\u2019s a strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His comments come amid rallying cries from tech leaders, including Anthropic\u2019s Dario Amodei and OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman, to slow the pace of AI development in the wake of several incidents where AI agents went rogue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, Trump hosted tech leaders of companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, AMD, SpaceX, Meta and Google at the White House to discuss AI safety. They signed a \u201cmorally binding\u201d document in which they agreed to work with \u201cindependent auditors\u201d to assess the safety and capabilities of their AI models.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith says the document is a \u201cgood step,\u201d but it stops short of the type of regulation that is necessary. The problem with voluntary self-regulation, he said, is that the \u201cgood companies\u201d will comply.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s the companies that are not as responsible that you need to worry about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith outlined several AI safety rules he\u2019d like to see put into place, like a legal obligation to alert an organization if its system was breached by rogue AI agents. He also appears to be in favor of AI labs getting the approval of outside evaluators before an AI product is released, and spoke positively about kill-switches to pause or slow down AI if humans lose control of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLet\u2019s speak calmly, maybe even softly, but firmly, and start to bring people together,\u201d Smith said.&nbsp;\u201cI hope that\u2019s the role we can play as a company. I hope that\u2019s the role the U.K. can play as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3492088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3492087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3492087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3492088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3492087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3492087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3492087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}