British AI firm Synthesia warns ‘sci-fi’ fears risk choking UK tech
British AI firm Synthesia has warned that “sci-fi” fears over AI could lead to poorly designed regulation, as pressure grows on ministers to toughen the UK’s AI rules.
Alexandru Voica, head of corporate affairs and policy at the London-based AI video company, told City AM there was “no evidence” for claims that AI was already out of control.
“There is a group of people in Silicon Valley that believe AI is out of control”, he said. “There is no evidence to their claim. They are amazing sci-fi writers and have skilled lobbyists that try to scare people in the UK.”
The comments come after a wave of warnings from leading AI figures over the risks posed by increasingly powerful models.
Anthropic chief Dario Amodei has called for companies to slow the pace of model development to give safety measures time to catch up, while OpenAI boss Sam Altman has backed the broad case for slowing development where necessary.
Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon also quit the company last week, warning that leading labs were “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”.
AI regs ‘not fit for purpose’
The warnings have fuelled calls for tougher rules in Westminster. Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights this week said the UK’s existing framework was not “fit for purpose”, and called for a new AI Bill and independent statutory regulator.
It said some high-risk systems should require approval before deployment, while lower-risk AI should face fewer requirements.
Voica argued new rules aimed at hypothetical catastrophic risks could end up catching more routine uses of the technology.
“A British company integrating a model into customer service, software development or an internal workflow could find itself dealing with additional approval processes, liability questions and technical restrictions”, he said.
“We should spend more time making those rules work effectively for businesses and consumers, and less time reacting to fears about theoretical risks or news reports from the Silicon Valley AI doomer bubble”.
Synthesia sells generative AI software to businesses and would itself have to navigate any additional rules governing the technology, but it is not alone among smaller AI developers in pushing back against the latest calls.
Cohere co-founder and chief executive Aidan Gomez has also criticised proposals from larger Silicon Valley labs, arguing AI needs “evidenced standards, not a cartel”.
Gomez said independent testing of powerful AI systems was a “good idea”, but warned against allowing a handful of dominant developers to determine the standards applied across the industry.
Cohere instead wants rules based on demonstrated capabilities and risks, alongside mandatory transparency and independent testing for areas including cyber attacks, fraud, voice cloning and critical infrastructure.
MPs call for tougher AI rulees
The Joint Committee on Human Rights said UK laws largely apply when AI is deployed, leaving responsibility with users rather than developers and regulators without powers to prevent the release of systems considered unacceptably risky.
Committee chair Alex Sobel said Britain was currently “unprepared” for AI’s potential consequences, while the committee called for mandatory transparency requirements and stronger obligations across the AI supply chain.
The government has also left the door open to further legislation. “We take the risks from advanced AI extremely seriously and recognise the importance of ensuring our approach keeps pace with a rapidly evolving technology”m a government spokesperson told City AM.
“We should not assume that the existing framework will always be sufficient as AI capabilities develop. Any future measures will be evidence-based and focused on the risks we need to address”.
Voica also criticised the EU’s approach, arguing businesses still lack clarity over parts of its AI regime.
“We’ve already seen this happen with the European AI Act,” he said. “It’s been several years since that piece of legislation has passed and we still don’t have clarity on standards”.
He compared the debate to Britain’s nineteenth-century “red flag” laws, which imposed strict restrictions on early motor vehicles, arguing overly prescriptive rules could similarly hold back a developing British industry.
“I’m not sure why we’re so keen to repeat that failed experiment,” Voica said. “Governments should work with responsible businesses to understand what works in the real world, adjust legislation where needed, and aid progress to achieve economic growth, not slow it down”.