Smith made the case on the BBC's Big Boss Interview, calling AI both a "tool and a weapon" that urgently needs regulation. "Let's get started today," he said. He wants firms to build "emergency brakes," often called kill switches, that pause or slow AI if it gets out of control.
His plan goes further. Companies would have to write incident reports and tell a "victim" when a rogue AI agent breaches their system. Independent government evaluators would vet new AI technology, and rules would set when outside evaluators must sign off before release.
That puts Smith at odds with President Donald Trump, who said the sector should regulate itself so US firms don't lose out to Chinese rivals. Bosses at Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind have backed slowing AI development, but Trump has pushed against the idea.
"We know how to do this for other products," Smith said. He named the UK as the best place to lead, pointing to its AI Security Institute, which launched under former prime minister Rishi Sunak as the AI Safety Institute.