Microsoft President Brad Smith has said that milk and washing machines currently face stricter safety rules than artificial intelligence.
He called for urgent global safety standards, including “emergency brakes” and clear legal accountability for companies.
“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.”
He described AI as both “a tool and a weapon” and urged governments not to delay regulation. Smith proposed that companies should be legally required to notify victims if a rogue AI agent breaches their systems, to file incident reports, and to submit powerful new models to independent government evaluation before release. Developers, he added, must also have the technical ability to pause or slow down a system at any moment.
Almost at the same time, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took a similar stance. He argued that companies should assume any powerful model may already be compromised and contain it from the start.
“Think of it like an emergency brake. An authorized person should always be able to pause or shut down a model mid-task.”
Smith’s comments put him at odds with the approach of President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump has repeatedly said that “whoever wins AI, wins” and has favored self-regulation so that American firms do not fall behind Chinese competitors. At the end of September, Trump hosted the leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, SpaceX, Meta and Google at the White House, where the companies signed a “morally binding” document committing them to work with independent auditors.
Smith called the agreement “a good step, a necessary step,” but said it is no longer enough. In a self-regulatory regime, he noted, responsible companies will follow the rules; the real risk comes from those that are less diligent.
Leaders at Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind have previously backed a more cautious approach to the most powerful models. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for “pacing the frontier” and external oversight, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company welcomes consistent federal safety requirements and independent auditors.
Smith believes the United Kingdom is best placed to lead the development of global rules, thanks to its AI Security Institute. Washington, he added, views London differently from Brussels, giving Britain an advantage.
