“Unlike social media, which is a product, AI is a technology that's behind all of these other tech, all of these products — and so, regulate the products,” Huang said.

He said authorities should monitor for when an AI deployment “goes wrong” and “whenever new laws are necessary, add to the existing laws,” but pointed out that there are existing regulations in sectors where AI is deployed such healthcare, transportation, and entertainment.

Rigorous testing systems are needed, he said, in contained testing labs. “That's engineering, good old-fashioned engineering. It's not more than that. It's not less than that,” he said, adding the sector has to ensure that there is the “rigor of testing these products properly before we release it to the public.”

“This is no different than, you know, an omelet's not ready to be released, or a car is not ready to be released, an airplane engine's not ready to be released,” Huang said. “You should properly test it.”

Huang reiterated his point about holding back models until they're safe to release in his formal address to the event, in front of King Charles and representatives from OpenAI and Anthropic.

“When a product is not safe enough, we should hold it back and keep engineering. We've always done that, and we should continue to do that,” he said.