Governments agree AI could cause potentially 'catastrophic' harm to humanity

The declaration is set to provide a template for international collaboration. Picture: File  

Ireland, Britain, the US, EU, and China have all agreed that artificial intelligence poses a potentially catastrophic risk to humanity, in the first international declaration to deal with the fast-emerging technology.

In all, 28 governments have signed up to the so-called Bletchley declaration on the first day of the AI safety summit, hosted by the British government.