Artificial intelligence poses a 'Hiroshima'-style risk to humanity if governments do not agree to curb how it is developed, the UK foreign secretary has warned. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

Yvette Cooper urged countries, including the US and China, to agree international rules for AI, telling the Guardian she believes the issue will dominate foreign policy over the next two years.

In an essay published on Monday by the Chatham House thinktank, Cooper wrote: 'On nuclear, international agreement came only after the world saw the terrifying power of the new technology at Hiroshima – and asked what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. We cannot afford to wait for an AI equivalent of Hiroshima before we act.'

She told the Guardian: 'Across the world, people are feeling the same thing – there is amazing potential here, but there is also huge risk. We are already in a world where we have malign actors who will use technology against us.'

Cooper identified AI as just one area threatening global security, also warning about the impact of the climate crisis, irregular migration and foreign interference on western liberal democracy.

Her essay gives one of the clearest and most comprehensive pictures of the foreign secretary's worldview and where she thinks her department should devote its attention in the coming years. It comes as senior Labour figures jostle for position in a likely Andy Burnham cabinet, with her former colleague David Miliband being tipped for a return to the Foreign Office in her place. Miliband will share his own thoughts on foreign policy in a lecture on Thursday entitled 'Power and its missing guardrails'.

Cooper writes that European powers need to adjust to the idea that the US will no longer guarantee international peace and democracy, even after the end of Donald Trump's presidency. 'We should no longer expect the US to play the role it once did. There will continue to be issues where we disagree. But reduced dependence on any single ally will make us stronger,' she says.

One answer, she says, is for the UK and EU to negotiate a more permanent settlement instead of trying constantly to renegotiate individual elements of their trading arrangements. The government is putting the finishing touches on the latest round of EU renegotiation as ministers look to strike new deals on agriculture and electricity trading as well as visas for young people. They were due to be announced at a summit later this month, but that has been pushed back as EU officials hope to engage with the incoming Burnham government first.

Cooper argues: 'We need to develop a new, structured relationship with Europe, leading the development of its new security architecture, with a more European Nato at its core. And we must settle our relationship with the EU as a closer but stable partnership, rather than one based on endless incremental bargaining.' She did not say, however, what shape that more stable partnership should take. Burnham told the Guardian last year he wanted the UK to rejoin the bloc, but has said more recently he would not seek to pursue that if he becomes prime minister.

She warns that with Trump preoccupied with the war in Iran and the world turning its attention to other regions, countries were at risk of forgetting about delivering peace in Palestine. She told the Guardian: 'You have the 20-point plan … [but] my big worry is that it is running into the ground.'