The BaseEssayThe Guardian
When AI is subject to less regulation than your fridge, something is startlingly wrong
In a Guardian opinion piece, Richard Hermer, a Labour peer and former attorney general, argues that AI poses an existential risk and a threat to human agency, that industry self-regulation is not credible, and that international law and public debate are urgently needed.
Why it matters
The same thing, for different readers.
What it means for you
A former senior law officer argues that ordinary people should have a voice in how AI is shaped, rather than leaving it to a few governments and companies.
For lawmakers
Hermer calls for international coordination on frontier AI, including engagement with the US and China and coalitions of like-minded states.
For researchers
The essay argues that the degree of risk is not known, which bears on how much evidence labs should be asked to provide.
The question it raises
Hermer asks who AI should serve and calls for new governing theories of who should control it, framing the issue as one of democratic agency.
In their own words
Every quotation was found, word for word, in the text we saved from the source. That shows the words are there; it does not make them true, or prove the speaker meant them as quoted.
From the source’s own text.
“It is ludicrous to suggest the industry can be left to regulate itself.”
“The case for slowing down frontier AI before we are clear that the risks can be managed is blindingly obvious.”
The record
- Questions
- Who can demand evidence, delay a release or stop an unsafe deployment? · Can AI systems act beyond what people intended or allowed? · How fast is AI advancing, and where is it heading?
- People
- Richard Hermer (Wrote it, Labour life peer, former attorney general for England and Wales) · Bill Gates (Mentioned) · Kanishka Narayan (Mentioned) · Jacob Coxon (Mentioned)
- What we read
- We read the whole source.
- Found by
- The Radar, run of October 13, 2026, via
the-guardian-ai(tier 2: a major outlet’s own reporting) - Cite this
- The Guardian, “When AI is subject to less regulation than your fridge, something is startlingly wrong”, October 12, 2026. Entry in the Ctrl AI Base, https://ctrlai.com/base/guardian-2026-10-12-hermer-ai-regulation-fridge