Smith told the BBC that a washing machine faces more safety rules than AI, and that every milk carton in a supermarket is subject to safety rules and inspection.
Smith proposed global safety rules, emergency brakes for AI systems, legal incident reporting, and independent government-linked evaluators before public release.
Trump has argued that AI companies should regulate themselves to keep pace with Chinese rivals, a position Smith's proposals contradict.
Bill Gates told ABC News that cyberattacks are likely to be the most dramatic development in the next year, while the risk of AI escaping control is a few years away.
Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a BBC interview published on Monday, 12 October, that a washing machine is currently subject to more safety rules than artificial intelligence. "Right now, your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than AI. Every carton of milk you see in the supermarket is subject to safety rules and inspection," he said. Smith said the AI industry "is moving faster" than safety teams, adding that this "is not good for the protection of the public. It is not even good for the industry."
“We know how to do this for other products. We should build on that knowledge and think about how we apply it to AI.”
Smith called for models to undergo more safety evaluations, with independent evaluators both outside companies and linked to different governments. He said those evaluators would determine whether a product is ready to be released to the public. He also proposed an emergency brake to stop or slow AI systems that get out of control, and a legal duty for companies to file incident reports and tell people harmed when a system behaves unexpectedly or harmfully.
He described the emergency brake as applying to any AI system controlling autonomous devices or critical infrastructure, according to the Portuguese-language Observador report. Smith also said that in cases of attacks carried out by AI agents there should be a legal obligation to tell the victim what happened, referring to recent cases without naming companies.
Smith said the United Kingdom is best placed to promote global AI rules, mainly thanks to the AI Security Institute set up under former prime minister Rishi Sunak. Handelsblatt reported that the institute's testers, who receive advance access to models from leading providers on a voluntary basis, enjoy high standing.
Smith's position contradicts that of US President Donald Trump, who argues that the AI sector should regulate itself so that American companies do not lose the race with China. Several AI executives, including those at Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind, have publicly backed slowing agent development, according to Correio da Manha.
Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, told ABC News that the most dramatic developments next year will probably be in cyberattacks. "The real danger at this moment is not that AI gets out of control. We need to work on that too, but the major impact of such a scenario is still a few years away," he said, according to a Romanian report citing AFP. Gates said on Sunday, 11 October, that he rejected the idea that AI companies should self-regulate.
Pollar is free and carries no ads in the text. Its members keep it going.
Support PollarAI & Tech · London and Redmond
Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a BBC interview published on Monday, 12 October, that AI is less regulated than food and household appliances. He called for emergency brakes, incident reporting and independent evaluators, and said the UK is best placed to lead.
AI text based on reports by wnp.pl, Correio da Manha, Η Ναυτεμπορική and other publishers. Published .