www.digdipblog.com
On July 8th, 2023, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense published a video on Twitter (shown below). The accompanying text clearly outlined the video's intended messages: The War in Ukraine is no action film or computer simulation. It’s a real war, with real stakes. The text concludes with the statement “And we very much know what we are doing.” This... Continue Reading →
The advent of social media has transformed diplomats into ‘visual narrators’. By visual narrators I refer to diplomats’ growing ability to use visuals to deliver complex foreign policy messages. Indeed, over the past few years ,diplomats have learned to speak the language of visuals or what Roland Barthes called “The Rhetoric of the Image”. Barthes... Continue Reading →
In 2014, a group of data scientists from Microsoft teamed up with AI experts to create a computer program that could generate pictures in the style of Rembrandt. The team created a deep learning network which reviewed 150 gigabytes’ worth of Rembrandt paintings. The network soon learned to recognize distinctive features of Rembrandt’s works be... Continue Reading →
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Uncensored Chatbots Provoke a Fracas Over Free Speech (The New York Times) Israeli technology pioneers using drones, AI and big data to farm (Times of Israel) Can China develop its own... Continue Reading →
Recently, I was asked by an American diplomat about the benefits of using AI in public diplomacy activities. The Diplomat stated that as AI was a new kind of technology, foreign ministries around the world are anxious to learn about its benefits and shortcomings. This very question was put to me again this week when... Continue Reading →
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- How India is using digital technology to project power (The Economist) 8 Big Questions About AI (The New York Times) Robot takeover? Not quite. Here’s what AI doomsday would look like... Continue Reading →
Cultural appropriation, a term now heard often in media and academic discourse, is defined as “the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be especially controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from minority cultures”. The advent of... Continue Reading →
Diplomats and MFAs often seek to break their “algorithmic confines''. This is because social media algorithms limit the reach of diplomats’ online content. Tweets published by an Embassy, for example, will only reach the Embassy’s followers or social media followers who have expressed some interest in diplomacy, international relations or bi lateral ties between countries.... Continue Reading →
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 is ChatGPT and what can it be used for? (Penn State University) AI creators must study consciousness, experts warn (BBC News) UK Blocks Microsoft-Activision Gaming Deal, Biggest in Tech (Voice... Continue Reading →
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- The TikTok Teens Go To Washington (Data & Society) The Data Delusion (The New Yorker) The Vulkan Files: Secret trove offers rare look into Russian cyberwar ambitions (The Washington Post) ChatGPT... Continue Reading →
Exploring Digital Diplomacy 