In short
- UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper warned that governments need international cooperation to tackle the dangers of AI.
- Cooper compared the challenge to the nuclear defense efforts that took place after World War II.
- He called for cooperation between the US, China, and other AI powers on security issues.
Governments risk repeating mistakes made at the start of the nuclear age if they wait to enact laws on artificial intelligence, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has warned.
In a story published on Monday, Cooper said AI offers both advantages and new risks as the technology becomes more powerful and more accessible.
“Last month, in Shenzhen, China, I saw the incredible promise of AI and robotics being used to save lives,” Cooper wrote. But those same technologies are reshaping the future of war, crime and social cohesion in dire ways.”
Cooper said managing the threats posed by AI could be “the biggest security challenge of the next decade” and said governments need international cooperation around border technology before problems arise.
He compared the current race to develop AI systems to the original race for nuclear weapons, saying that international security agreements emerged only after countries saw the damage caused by nuclear weapons.
“On nuclear power, international agreement came after the world saw the dangerous power of the new technology HiroshimaCooper wrote: “We can’t afford to wait for Hiroshima-like AI before we take action.”
Cooper called on Britain to use its influence to bring the United States, China, and other major AI powers together to develop a shared security strategy and policy, aimed at 2023. AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, where world leaders from 29 countries and the European Union met to discuss the impending threat of AI. Cooper called this an example of the UK’s ability to “bring the world together on AI security.”
Cooper’s warning comes after months of concern about how governments should manage powerful AI systems.
In May, the UK’s AI Security Institute he warned that rapid gains in AI cybersecurity capabilities after OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 became the second example to complete a test run without human assistance, following Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview.
A few days later, the International Monetary Fund warned that AI could “expand” combating the global financial system by reducing the skills needed to exploit vulnerabilities, encouraging policymakers to view cyber security as an economic issue rather than a technical one.
In June, President Donald Trump he signed The executive order creates a voluntary process for reviewing advanced AI models before they are released, expands AI programs in cyber security, and directs agencies to assess potential threats to national security from borderline AI models.
That same month, calls for stricter regulations have also come from the AI industry, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. to argue that the apparent requirements are no longer sufficient and call for an official test of the third group of border types. This was followed by the US government ordering Anthropic restricted access to Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for national security reasons in the past. to upgrade the system in July.
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