Last week I began exploring possible biases in popular (Artificial Intelligence) AI tools. Within the context of AI, “bias” refers to the generation of skewed output or content. AI tools such as ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Copilot may suffer from biases because they were trained on skewed data or because humans with biases and prejudices programmed... Continue Reading →
Through the Lookingglass: Digital Diplomacy and AI Biases
The launch of ChatGPT, a Generative AI tool developed by the tech company Open AI, spurred a global discussion on the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence. Notably, ChatGPT is referred to as an “AI” tool, yet it is not really an example of Artificial Intelligence. ChatGPT does not think. ChatGPT does act. ChatGPT has... Continue Reading →
Digital Diplomacy and The Rights of AI
I recently asked ChatGPT to draft an AI bill of rights. My prompt sought to identify which human rights should be enshrined in the era of AI and generative AI. Since the advent of AI tools such as ChatGPT, individuals and governments have expressed concerns over possible violations of human rights. For instance, many discussions... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Digital Diplomacy Must Read List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Musk, Indonesian health minister, launch Starlink for health sector (Reuters) It is dangerously easy to hack the world’s phones (The Economist) Palantir holds first-ever AI warfare conference (The Guardian) OpenAI putting... Continue Reading →
How to Practice Digital Diplomacy in a World Devoid of Context?
Every few years, a new word seems to dominate societal discourses. In recent years the dominant word was “narrative”. New pundits depicted politics as a clash of narratives, diplomacy was understood as the practice of constructing appealing narratives, fake news and conspiracy theories were viewed as disruptive narratives that undermine trust in national institutions while... Continue Reading →
From “Wolf Warrior Diplomacy” To “Lone Wolf Diplomacy: The New Logic of Digital Public Diplomacy
At a recent international conference I was asked- how does relationality help understand public diplomacy in today’s world? To answer this question, we must first characterize todays’ world. It is a world that is prone to crises, a world that is marked by wars, it is a complex world as a crisis in one world... Continue Reading →
Digital Diplomacy and the Beautification of War
Susan Sontag famously argued that photography was violent in nature. Photographs, according to Sontag, are violent as they fracture linear time. Each photograph is like an atom torn from linear time and forever frozen. The more photographs one takes, the more he or she rips linear time into fragments that can longer form a coherent... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Must Read List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- What the future holds for driverless cars (BBC News) Resistance Is Futile, But Maybe Not With AI (Bloomberg) It’s Time to Give Up on Ending Social Media’s Misinformation Problem (The Atlantic)... Continue Reading →
The Drone Wars: How Ukrainian Drones Are Reshaping War Coverage
In the early 1990s, scholars coined the term “The CNN Effect” referencing the impact that CNN had on American foreign policy. Scholars asserted that issues which rose to prominence in CNN were soon addressed by American policy makers. In this way CNN shaped the priorities of the White House and the State Department. CNN was... Continue Reading →
Is Digital Diplomacy Disruptive?
In a classic episode of the television show “Yes Prime Minister”, the Civil Servant Humphrey Appleby explains the logic of British diplomacy saying: “The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it’s really anti-Europe. The civil service was united in its desire to make sure that the Common Market didn’t work. That’s why we went into it.... Continue Reading →