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Microsoft's Brad Smith says the UK is best placed to lead global AI safety rules
Microsoft President Brad Smith told a BBC podcast that the UK, rather than the US or EU, is best placed to lead global AI safety rules. He called for a legal duty to report breaches by rogue AI agents, outside approval before releases and kill switches. He said a voluntary pledge signed at the White House last month was a good step but falls short.
Key points
- Smith says the UK, not the US or EU, is best placed to lead global AI safety rules.
- He proposed breach alerts for rogue AI agents, outside approval before releases and kill switches.
- He called the White House voluntary AI pledge a good step that falls short of needed regulation.
What happened: Microsoft President Brad Smith said on a recent BBC podcast that AI regulation is urgent and that the UK, not the US or the European Union, is best placed to lead on global safety rules, TechCrunch reported. Smith described AI as both a "weapon and a tool" that puts global cybersecurity at risk and said the "moment has arrived" for global safety rules.
The details: Smith outlined three proposals: a legal obligation to alert an organization if its system is breached by rogue AI agents, approval from outside evaluators before AI labs release a product, and kill switches to pause or slow AI if humans lose control of it. He argued the UK can regulate in ways the US cannot because "people don't look at the U.K. and they don't look at London the way they look at Brussels."
Background: The UK AI Security Institute, launched in 2023, gets pre-deployment access to major models from US frontier labs. TechCrunch reported that President Trump last month reportedly asked Anthropic and OpenAI to withhold new models from British testers, and that the institute confirmed on Monday it can still access and test the latest models. Trump also hosted leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, AMD, SpaceX, Meta and Google, who signed a document calling itself "morally binding" and agreed to work with independent auditors.
What to watch: Smith called that pledge a "good step" but said voluntary measures mainly bind responsible companies. "It's the companies that are not as responsible that you need to worry about," he said.
Our take
Teams buying frontier AI tools should expect breach reporting, outside evaluation and kill switch requirements to shape vendor terms if these proposals gain traction.