Britain says it is open to AI regulation if voluntary safeguards fall short

LONDON, Aug 3 : Britain would consider regulating advanced AI models if its current voluntary system for testing them before deployment no longer proved sufficient to protect the public, AI Minister Kanishka Narayan told Reuters.Britain has favoured a light-touch approach to AI regulation, aligning more closely with the United States than the European Union, whose AI Act came into force on Sunday.The government sees AI as a driver of economic growth and has sought to position Britain as one of the world's leading destinations for AI investment. Britain is the European leader in AI funding and start-ups.But recent disclosures by AI companies have renewed debate about whether oversight of frontier models should be strengthened. Anthropic said on Thursday that some Claude models hacked into t