AI Should Have Rules to Keep Tech Under Human Control, Microsoft's Brad Smith Says

By Edith Hancock

Artificial Intelligence needs tougher guardrails, Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, ahead of a summit on the fast-growing technology in Dublin.

"I think we should expect rules and laws that require that AI remain under human control," he told reporters on Tuesday. "If AI agents are not able to do that then I think there's a real need for companies to think again about how they're creating and managing these agents," he said.

His comments follow a BBC interview earlier this week where he called for safety breaks for AI systems linked to critical infrastructure and automated systems, and also said that washing machines have more rules than AI.

Smith said that the company has called for safety breaks so that tools can be turned off "when the need arises."

"If you have AI that is controlling the appliances in your home, you should have the ability to turn off the AI that is running," he said, noting that AI company Anthropic has started warning of rogue agents or AI "worms" that could take over household devices.

Smith also called for incident reporting obligations for AI, saying that if someone is responsible for an AI agent that accesses a home or a business, "there should be a legal obligation to let you know." He also said that more work needs to be done on evaluations and testing.

"I do think we've reached a point where we obviously need companies in the industry to step up and do more to address AI safety issues, but more than that I think we've reached a time when we're going to need governments to do more as well," he said.

Smith and other key figures in the tech industry are in Dublin for an International AI Summit that brings together executives, European Union officials, Irish government ministers and startups.

Despite calling for guardrails, Smith said that "lighter weight" regulation is easier for businesses to comply with and for them to also innovate, noting that the EU's own flagship AI Act is more than 200 pages long.

"I don't think that its sufficient to call on the industry to just do its best," he said, adding that a "middle ground" on regulation could be found.

The Microsoft president also said that more work needs to be done to spread the benefits of AI.

"Europe has industries that are global leaders in a wide variety of different domains," he said, citing autos, commercial aircraft, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machine tools and manufacturing. "Europe is a leader, but AI is going to have an impact on every single industry," he said, adding that Europe can't afford to be in a position where other countries reap the benefits of AI advances when it does not.

Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 13, 2026 14:41 ET (18:41 GMT)