Muharem Rusiti
Updated: January 2nd, 2024
Artificial intelligence (AI), and particularly generative AI, is gradually emerging as a transformative force in various fields, and the realm of diplomacy and international affairs is no exception. This novel technology and its various applications are in fact bringing new possibilities – unimaginable until the recent past – and potentially revolutionizing the way diplomats, foreign affairs experts, and government officials operate. And, as these new technologies gradually unfold, they also raise different issues of concern. In this article, we will explore how AI is reshaping diplomacy and foreign affairs, some potential benefits it might offer, and the main challenges and drawbacks that it brings and that need to be addressed.
OPPORTUNITIES
Enhanced Research and Analysis
The integration of AI in the sphere of international relations opens a world of opportunities for diplomats and foreign affairs professionals to facilitate and enhance their everyday work. One significant advantage brought about by AI is its ability to assist field experts and officials in their research and analysis activities by providing a wealth of information and highly valuable insights into global trends and developments, emerging risks, public opinion and sentiment, political developments, and policy shifts, among others. Using techniques like enhanced web search and real-time analysis, AI can swiftly synthesize vast amounts of data and information from world news, official documents and statements, and social media posts, to generate thorough and constantly updated assessments and briefings. Furthermore, AI has also great potential in its ability to simulate scenarios and can be utilized by experts to model the impact of various foreign policy options, evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches, and identify potential risks and challenges. As evident, all these diverse uses of AI can consequently be of great assistance in making more informed decisions, preparing better responses and countermeasures to different international moves, and ultimately crafting more effective overall diplomatic and foreign policy strategies.
Facilitated Negotiations
Another key aspect of human-AI collaboration is the ability to leverage these novel technologies for political and diplomatic negotiations. AI systems can greatly assist discussions between different parties and facilitate the reaching of agreements by providing better data and diverse scenario analyses. This can be generated by identifying common ground, offering alternatives, unexplored perspectives, and proposing potential breakthroughs and solutions; serving thus not only as a valuable tool and smart assistant but also as a sort of facilitator or even mediator for diplomats and government officials during their talks and negotiations.
Better Translation, Interpreting, and Communication
Language barriers have long been a challenge in the field of diplomacy and international relations, often times hindering effective communication between diplomats and government officials from different linguistic backgrounds. However, AI-powered language translation and interpreting systems are changing the game, greatly facilitating smoother, faster, and more accurate communication, interpreting, and translation activities and thus improving interactions and mutual understanding. In this regard for instance, the government of Albania just recently announced that it will use the AI-powered software ChatGPT to translate, analyze, and integrate thousands of pages of EU legal measures and provisions into existing legal structures, boosting this way its EU accession and membership process while also saving the country time and considerable financial resources. This decision followed a personal agreement between the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and the CTO of OpenAI, Mira Murati, who was born in Albania.
Moreover, if we look at specific subfields such as the public diplomacy and global advocacy sphere for example, this novel technology could allow hyper-targeted and fine-tuned messaging and communication outreach, as it has the capability to rapidly tailor narratives and messages to diverse audiences across the world based on specific linguistic and cultural backgrounds, values, political beliefs, and current circumstances and developments.
E-Government and Consular Services
AI-powered tools can be employed to streamline some bureaucratic functions and tasks as well as to simplify, digitize, and automate some consular and diplomatic services, such as the request and delivery of official documents and visas and the answering of various questions and queries through the use of AI bots. This helps nations to save precious financial resources and freeing up time for diplomatic and consular staff members to focus on more complex issues that absolutely require human expertise.
CHALLENGES
Misinformation and Deepfakes
While the potential benefits of AI for the field of diplomacy and foreign affairs are vast, there are also significant challenges that must be acknowledged and addressed. One of the main concerns is the potential for AI to be used for disinformation and manipulation. AI-powered tools and generative models can be used to create hyper-realistic and so-called deepfake content, bogus social media profiles, and bots to spread misinformation and deceive and manipulate public opinion, leading thus potentially to domestic turmoil or even dangerous misunderstandings and conflicts between different international actors. Furthermore, this can also pose a threat to the integrity of the news and information ecosystem, erode public trust in the media content we consume, and undermine democratic processes and national and geopolitical stability.
Biased Data and Algorithms
Another major challenge in AI integration is the potential for bias in algorithms. AI systems are in fact only as unbiased as the data they are trained on, and if the data is biased, the outcomes can perpetuate discriminatory and flawed practices. This poses a significant problem to diplomatic practices, as decisions assisted or even made by AI systems may inadvertently display prejudice or even discriminate against certain groups, ideas, points of view, and perpetuate thus inequalities or, more broadly speaking, induce unjust assessments and judgments and lead to flawed decisions and outcomes.
Security and Privacy Concerns
An additional concern is the security and privacy issues that the use of AI can cause to the sphere of diplomacy and international affairs. First and foremost, there is a hypothetical threat that must be absolutely avoided and cannot be yet totally excluded, and namely a possible apocalyptic and unconceivable sci-fi scenario such as a complete and uncontrolled AI takeover over human activities. In this specific case diplomatic or even national and international security activities, especially if it reaches a state of self-improvement and uncontrollable and irreversible evolution known in jargon as technological singularity or simply singularity, which could result in unimaginable developments such as international incidents and conflicts of various nature, to name just a few.
Secondly, as diplomatic activities are known to be prime targets for cyberattacks, the proliferation of these new technologies can introduce an extra layer of vulnerabilities as well as be misused for AI-enhanced hacking and offensive purposes. Thus, safeguarding confidential information and protecting against unauthorized access to data and communication channels must inevitably become paramount in this new scenario.
Hence, diplomats, government officials, and policymakers must establish robust cybersecurity measures and adopt unique and regularly updated protocols to mitigate these risks, ensuring absolute and ultimate human control over these technologies to prevent potentially nefarious and out-of-hand situations.
CONCLUSION
AI technologies are inevitably transforming the world and greatly impacting the field of international relations too. The future of diplomacy and foreign affairs lies hence inevitably in the integration of AI into these practices, and those who embrace this collaboration and invest in its development and integration will be undoubtedly better equipped to navigate the complexities of the future global landscape.
And while the collaboration between humans and AI offers innumerable benefits, it also brings some drawbacks that must be addressed. In this regard, policymakers, governmental officials, and tech companies should convene as soon as possible and set a series of standards and regulations governing the responsible development and safe and ethical use of AI – perhaps in the framework of a newly established or an already existing supranational organization. The results should draw a chart which would include governing bodies and enforceable guidelines for responsible AI development, safe and ethical deployment and usage, exclude cybersecurity and data privacy protection issues. The ability to eliminate the threat of AI possibly taking untamed control in any way over human activities is a significant concern. Collaborations should grant the transparency of AI algorithms and diversification of training data, promote public awareness and media literacy programs, and perhaps develop some universal and constantly updated AI-generated disinformation detection systems.
Finally, by investing in AI research and development, promoting global cooperation, and establishing internationally enforceable safe and ethical standards and regulations, policymakers, government officials, and tech companies can ensure that AI serves as a positive force for diplomacy and international affairs – and the world and humankind in general – in this new era, and not as a potential rogue troublemaker.
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