Microsoft's Brad Smith says UK is best placed to lead AI safety rules

Key points

• Smith, on a BBC podcast, called for urgent global AI rules and said the UK, not the US or EU, is best placed to lead.
• Britain's AI Security Institute gets access to major US frontier models before deployment, but Trump reportedly pressed labs to withhold models from UK testers.
• AISI confirmed it can still access and test the latest models, despite the pushback.
• Smith called the White House voluntary safety pledge a good step but said it cannot stop irresponsible companies from ignoring it.

Why it matters for marketers: Marketers using AI tools should watch for UK-led testing and possible new rules on breach alerts, outside evaluations and kill switches.