Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic called to UK Parliament over AI safety
Key Points
- MPs invited Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic to a 13 October evidence session on AI security
- The UK Government's AI Security Institute has also been invited to appear
- MPs could ask whether pre-release safety testing should be legally mandatory
- Mandatory reporting of incidents such as deceptive behaviour and loss of human control is on the agenda
- The committee will also examine how to stop a race to the bottom on safety between firms and countries
MPs have invited Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic to appear before the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee on 13 October for an evidence session on AI security.
The committee published the letters it sent to Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic on Tuesday (22 September), and said the session forms part of its wider work examining the UK’s economic strategy for AI.
The committee has also invited the UK Government’s AI Security Institute to give evidence at the same session.
The committee said MPs could ask whether AI companies should decide for themselves if their models are powerful enough to need independent safety testing, or whether pre-release testing should become a legal requirement.
MPs could also ask the four firms whether they accept mandatory reporting of serious safety incidents. The committee listed deceptive behaviour, safeguards being circumvented, unauthorised replication and evidence that human control may be failing as the types of incident it has in mind.
The third line of questioning the committee flagged covers competition between companies and between countries, and what stops that competition producing a race to the bottom on safety. MPs could ask which common international requirements should become mandatory.
The AI Security Institute, which the Government renamed from the AI Safety Institute in February 2025, tests frontier models before and after release under voluntary agreements with the major developers, including all four companies invited to the session.
None of the four firms are legally required to submit their models for testing in the UK at present, and the committee’s questions signal that MPs are weighing whether that voluntary arrangement should continue.
The committee said it will publish further details of the session in due course.
