AI is less regulated than milk, Microsoft president says

Milk and washing machines are currently more regulated than AI, the president of Microsoft has said.

Brad Smith said there needed to be global safety rules in place, including a legal obligation to tell a “victim” if their system is breached by a rogue AI agent as well as deciding when outside evaluators should sign off on an AI product before it is released.

His comments put him at odds with President Donald Trump, who said the sector should regulate itself so US firms don’t lose out to Chinese rivals.

But Smith said: “Right now, your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than AI. Every carton of milk that you see in the grocery store is subject to safety rules and inspection.”

Demands for laws and rules to control AI have grown after experts in the sector said they believed the technology its a threat to humanity.

The bosses of the US-based AI giants such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind have all backed the idea of an AI development slowdown, but Trump has pushed against this.

Speaking to the BBC’s Big Boss Interview, Smith called AI both a “tool and a weapon” that urgently needed to be regulated.

“Let’s get started today,” he said.

He said firms need “emergency brakes” – often known in the industry as ‘kill switches’ – to pause or slowdown AI if it got out of control in some way.

He also said there should be a legal requirement for firms to write “incident reports” and tell victims if the technology goes rogue. He also suggested that independent government evaluators should vet new AI technology.

“We know how to do this for other products,” Smith said. “We should build on that knowledge and think about how to apply it to AI.”

Smith said the UK was best placed to drive forward these global rules for AI because of its AI Security Institute, external, launched during former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s government as the AI Safety Institute.

“In the world of technology, in the tech sector, most people that I know would say, if you ask them, name the country that is the leader in having this technical capability, they would say, it’s very simple. It’s the United Kingdom. They are the best.”