Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, has said milk cartons and washing machines are subject to tighter safety regulation than artificial intelligence.
Speaking on the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast, Smith said AI is both a "tool and a weapon" that needs urgent, legally binding rules rather than voluntary industry commitments.
"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 said.
Add brakes to the machine
Smith called for firms to install "emergency brakes", or kill switches, to halt AI systems that grow out of control, and for a legal duty to notify victims when a rogue AI agent breaches their systems, with independent evaluators vetting new products before release.
His remarks put him at odds with President Donald Trump, who has pushed for industry self-regulation to keep US firms ahead of Chinese rivals.
Smith pointed to the UK's AI Security Institute, launched under former prime minister Rishi Sunak as the AI Safety Institute, as the model for global rules, arguing Washington views London more favourably than Brussels on tech regulation.
Pledges
His comments follow a White House signing late last month where executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, SpaceX, Meta and Google agreed to a "morally binding" pledge to work with independent auditors.
Smith welcomed that step but said it was "not sufficient", warning that self-regulation only binds responsible firms, not "the companies that are not as responsible that you need to worry about".
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella echoed the call on Saturday, writing that AI systems must remain ones "whose behaviour we can observe, limits we can test, and actions we can always contain".
