Microsoft President Brad Smith on Thursday said humans need to remain in charge of artificial intelligence and be held accountable for any pitfalls, offering a five-point plan for the public governance of the tech.

"This is the fundamental need: to ensure that machines remain subject to effective oversight by people, and the people who design and operate machines remain accountable to everyone else. In short, we must always ensure that AI remains under human control. This must be a first-order priority for technology companies and governments alike," he wrote in a blog post. 

Smith said that AI systems and those who design and operate them must be subject to the rule of law. 

As part of the five-pronged plan, Smith advised building upon new government-led AI safety frameworks, requiring effective safety brakes for systems that control critical infrastructure like the electric grid or water systems, developing a legal and regulatory framework based on the technology architecture for AI, promoting transparency, ensuring academic and nonprofit access to AI, and pursuing new public-private partnerships to use AI as an effective tool to address the inevitable societal challenges that come with new technology. 

Smith highlighted that leaders are "older and wiser" since the development of social media, which became "both a weapon and a tool."

Smith said Microsoft has nearly 350 specialists focused on governance for new technology, and that the tech giant is investing in the next fiscal year to grow the effort further. 

Microsoft is now on a second version of the corporate standard that embodies ethical AI principles, and it has a sensitive use review program to subject sensitive and novel AI use cases to "rigorous, specialized review that results in tailored guidance."

"As technological change accelerates, the work to govern AI responsibly must keep pace with it. With the right commitments and investments, we believe it can," Smith wrote.