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Wed, 30 Sep 2026

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 Regulating AI 'not the right place to start' says Bailey

AI needs "rigorous" testing and safeguards to contain risk, Andrew Bailey says.

* Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, says regulating AI "is not the right place to start" and instead calls for rigorous testing to identify vulnerabilities and create safeguards.
* The risks around AI are "real and increasingly significant", according to Bailey, but he argues that AI development should not be halted or prohibited as it has immense benefits.
* Bailey suggests establishing a system for intervention and setting boundaries for AI operations.
* UK's AI Security Institute is conducting important work in testing AI, which will help form part of a set of standards.
* Bailey emphasizes the need to proceed with humility and acknowledge that testing may not catch all potential risks.
* He rejects the idea that regulation should be the first step, instead suggesting that it may emerge over time as a more formal framework.
* Bailey specifically highlights frontier AI, which has the potential to become "a closed loop in which the model progressively governs itself" without effective intervention.