Britain’s Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee has invited senior representatives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta to give oral evidence on October 13, 2026, on AI safety and security, City AM and MLex reported Tuesday, September 22, 2026. Committee chair Liam Byrne framed the hearing around whether the UK’s public policy framework and international agreements are “not yet fit for the future,” with trust as the core issue in the inquiry.
Named invitees include OpenAI EMEA policy chief Tom Duff Gordon, Anthropic UK and Ireland head Pip White, Google DeepMind senior vice president Koray Kavukcuoglu, and Meta EMEA vice president Derya Matras, City AM said. Firms were asked to confirm attendance by September 29, 2026, and to provide written answers in advance. Manchester Evening News likewise placed the urgent hearing on October 13 as the committee concludes its inquiry into Britain’s economic strategy for AI.
MPs are pressing whether pre-release independent safety testing should be legally mandatory rather than left to developers’ own judgment about which models are powerful enough to warrant scrutiny — the operator-control gap under a still-voluntary regime. Byrne’s letters also ask what legal right the AI Security Institute (AISI) should have to companies’ models, training data, testing methods, and internal safety evidence; whether a regulator should be able to prevent deployment, require further testing, or withdraw a model that fails an adequate assessment; and whether firms would accept mandatory reporting of serious incidents such as deceptive behaviour, circumvented safeguards, unauthorised replication, and loss of human control. Personal accountability for deploying frontier models, legal liability for foreseeable harm, and whether development should slow when oversight lags are also on the table.
City AM noted Anthropic recently released its latest model without prior AISI testing, underscoring voluntary-cooperation limits. AISI director Henry de Zoete has also been called for October 13; former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon was previously invited. OpenAI has publicly backed stronger UK rules for frontier developers. City AM said it approached OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta for comment.
Sources
- https://www.cityam.com/openai-and-anthropic-summoned-to-parliament-on-fears-uk-ai-rules-not-fit-for-future/
- https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2528256/openai-meta-anthropic-google-deepmind-invited-to-uk-parliament-ai-hearing
- https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/parliament-meet-global-ai-leaders-34653670