WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 -- Microsoft's president wants governments to inspect artificial intelligence the way they inspect milk, and he wants Britain to write the rules, a month after Politico reported that the White House asked two American labs to keep their newest models away from British testers.

In a BBC interview published Monday, Brad Smith said that "right now, your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than AI." Every carton of milk in a grocery store, he said, is subject to safety rules and inspection. "We know how to do this for other products," Smith said, and the same knowledge should be applied to AI, Fox News reported.

His list is specific. He wants outside evaluators to approve frontier models before release, manda...