Microsoft president says AI faces fewer safety rules than milk in call for global regulation

Microsoft President Brad Smith highlighted the need for global regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in a new interview, saying that AI currently faces lighter safety requirements than milk. 

Smith said in an interview with the BBC that was published Monday that there’s a need for a global set of AI safety rules that includes a notification mechanism for victims whose systems are breached by a rogue AI agent, as well as an “emergency brake” available to developers.

Smith said there should be a legal requirement for companies to produce incident reports when AI goes awry and added, “We know how to do this for other products. We should build on that knowledge and think about how to apply it to AI.”

“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,” Smith added.

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The Microsoft exec’s interview comes as the leaders of the companies developing frontier AI models – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei – are calling for developers to pace the development of advanced AI models to ensure they remain under control.

Both Altman and Amodei have suggested allowing third-party evaluators to have employee-like access to AI model development processes to monitor capabilities and breaches, and also report them to the public for broader awareness.

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Smith said Britain is well-placed to lead the way on AI regulation due to the AI Security Institute that was launched by former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The Microsoft president added that officials in Washington viewed London’s approach to AI rules very differently than the European Union’s regulatory framework, which Brussels established to govern AI based on the level of risk.

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Britain’s AI Security Institute receives pre-deployment access to AI models under voluntary agreements with major developers, allowing them to assess the capabilities of the models and the risk they may pose.

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan has told Reuters that Britain would consider regulating advanced models if the current system proved insufficient.

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Reuters contributed to this report.