Microsoft's president says AI is less regulated than a carton of milk
Microsoft President Brad Smith argued that artificial intelligence is currently subject to fewer safety regulations than common consumer products like milk. He suggested that the lack of decisive action in the United States presents a unique opportunity for the UK to take a leading role in global AI governance. Smith emphasized the urgent need for robust oversight as powerful models begin to pose significant risks to global cybersecurity.
- ▪Brad Smith stated that washing machines and cartons of milk are subject to more safety rules and inspections than current AI systems.
- ▪US President Donald Trump has advocated for accelerating the US AI industry to maintain a lead over China, preferring self-regulation by companies over government intervention.
- ▪Major tech leaders including Sundar Pichai, Dario Amodei, and Elon Musk signed a self-regulation pact at a summit, though critics dismissed it as a distraction.
- ▪Smith believes the UK can leverage its distinct position compared to the EU to become a global leader in establishing AI regulatory standards.
5 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 20 hours. Coverage spans 2 points on the political spectrum — 1 lean left, 3 centre.
- ▪ Microsoft president warns AI is less regulated than milk and washing machines — Mashable
- ▪ AI less regulated than milk, Microsoft president says in warning over safety — The Guardian — Tech
- ▪ AI is less regulated than milk, says Microsoft president — Bbc
- ▪ AI is less regulated than milk, says Microsoft president — BBC News — Business
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| Original publisher | Engadget |
| Canonical URL | https://www.engadget.com/2283487/microsoft-president-ai-less-regulated-than-a-carton-of-milk/ |
| Publication time | Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:28:37 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-10-12T09:30:59.662Z |
| Last seen | 2026-10-12T09:30:59.662Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | EQFxt1ObBuZn · 5 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
News AI Microsoft's president says AI is less regulated than a carton of milk Brad Smith said the lack of US action gives the UK a unique opening to lead in terms of regulating AI. By Steve Dent Oct. 12, 2026 5:28 am EST Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Add Engadget on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover Milk can't hack companies and governments like AI definitely can, but it's still subject to more regulation, Microsoft president Brad Smith told ITV on Friday. "Right now, your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than AI," Smith said in the interview. "Every carton of milk that you see in the grocery store is subject to safety rules and inspection." Major US AI giants like Anthropic, OpenAI and Google's DeepMind have spoken in favor of an AI development slowdown.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Engadget.