OpenAI and Anthropic tell UK lawmakers voluntary AI pledges are not enough
At a UK parliamentary hearing, OpenAI and Anthropic backed a statutory AI safety framework, saying voluntary commitments are not a durable plan for frontier risk. Google DeepMind and Meta declined to support new legislation, deepening a public split among labs.
Executives from OpenAI and Anthropic told Britain’s Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee on October 13, 2026 that voluntary AI-safety pledges are no longer enough and that a statutory framework is needed, WIRED reported. The testimony deepened a public schism with Google DeepMind and Meta, which declined to back new legislation.
Anthropic’s head of Europe, Liam Booth-Smith, said “the rules should be binding,” adding that the company has “consistently believed that there should be binding rules on companies and that voluntary commitments are not enough.” OpenAI vice president Tom Duff Gordon was more cautious but still supportive of a statutory framework and an international convention. He said “there should be some elements that should be mandatory,” starting with incident reporting: “We don’t think basing everything on voluntary commitments for frontier risk is a good long-term plan.”
A split among the labs
Asked whether he supported a statutory framework, Google DeepMind’s Owen Larter replied: “Focus on the standards is what we would be doing.” Meta’s Rob Sherman pointed to Britain’s existing regulators, telling MPs they were “not writing on a blank page.” Committee chair Liam Byrne told WIRED the hearing was meant to “light up the wide differences in opinions” among the world’s wealthiest AI firms and show “that you couldn’t rely on voluntary self-regulation.”
AISI access is still voluntary
Civil servants later conceded how little the current system compels. Britain’s AI Security Institute (AISI) tests frontier models before release only when companies choose to hand them over. AISI director Henry de Zoete said the institute depends entirely on cooperation from companies and foreign governments. Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little, pressed on whether the regime is voluntary, answered: “At the moment, yes, it is.” If AISI judged a model too dangerous but a company released it anyway, de Zoete said the institute could not stop them: “What we’re not doing is kite marking… We’re not saying yes or no to any sort of model.”
Access runs through Washington
Frontier executives made clear that UK access depends on US approval. OpenAI’s Duff Gordon said the company provides models pre-deployment to the US CAISI and will keep providing them to UK AISI “as long as we’re able to do that under the US government.” Anthropic’s Booth-Smith said the firm “unfortunately were not able to provide full unrestricted access to [Mythos 5.1] to UK AISI at that time… That’s a question for the US government,” before adding that AISI now has access.
Whistleblowers including former OpenAI staffers Daniel Kokotajlo and Steven Adler also testified that companies cannot be trusted to self-regulate. Byrne told WIRED his committee wants Britain’s coming G20 presidency to help broker an international convention that does not depend solely on the current White House.
Source: WIRED.
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