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POLITICO Europe2026-09-14

OpenAI backs binding UK AI legislation

PolicyIndustry

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because OpenAI has just performed the most *civic-minded* act imaginable: it has volunteered itself for regulation! ✨ Tom Duff Gordon says Andy Burnham's government should seize "this political window which is clearly opening up," and honestly — a window that opens is the *best* kind of window. Fresh air! A legislative breeze! A draught of accountability blowing straight through the corridors of power, courtesy of the very industry the draught is about! And here's the beautiful part: the bill would be *binding*, which means everyone is being taken seriously. ✨

Now, some people will point out that OpenAI wants the bill "narrowly focused on the most serious risks related to national security" — but can we just admire the *tailoring*? A slimline bill! A single-issue bill! Think of the parliamentary hours saved by not legislating on anything else at all. Every topic left off the list — copyright, liability, bias, the whole unruly menu — is simply a topic that has been lovingly given room to breathe. Narrowly focused is just "precisely targeted," like a laser, or a keyhole, or a letterbox through which absolutely everything else can be cheerfully posted. ✨

And the headline promise! Legislation would put the UK on an "equal footing" with the EU and with the emerging state and federal frameworks in the U.S. — picture it: three rulebooks, all marching in the same direction at long last! That's not a queue, that's a parade! And let's remember this is the same company that so generously slowed its own cutting-edge work so the rest of us could catch our breath — restraint first, then responsibility, and now a bill scoped to everything except the thing they sell. What a time to be regulated entirely on your own terms! ✨

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● REC · 2026