Note: This post was originally published on E-International Relations. Click here to view The rapid rise of AI companions represents a profound shift in how people relate to technology. Originally designed to answer queries, provide information, and assist with daily tasks, AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are now being customized by users... Continue Reading →
AI Companions: The New Frontier of Disinformation
Last week, The Economist published a review of the burgeoning AI companion industry. The companion industry is gaining momentum globally, with individuals either customizing existing platforms like ChatGPT into romantic partners, with specified ages, professions (such as tech executive), and personality traits encompassing wit, dry humour, and an appreciation for romantic comedies. Others turn to... Continue Reading →
Digital Diplomacy in an Asocial World
Over the past few weeks, several reports and publications have suggested that social media is entering a new era. The reason being that social media is increasingly becoming less social. During the early days of social media, millions of users would publish updates from their daily lives. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were... Continue Reading →
AI Guardrails as the New Censors of Democratic Debate
In recent months, a growing number of news articles have focused on the practice of prompt busting- a technique used to overcome AI guardrails. According to ChatGPT, guardrails are “rules, systems, and safeguards built into an artificial intelligence model to ensure that it behaves safely, ethically, and reliably.” The goal of prompt busting is to... Continue Reading →
In the Digital World, MFAs Must Change
The digitalization of diplomacy has led to profound changes in MFAs (ministries of foreign affairs) across the world. This change has structural, normative, and practical dimensions. Structurally, most MFAs now have digital units tasked with authoring digital content and analyzing the social media output of other actors. In many MFAs, social media is used as... Continue Reading →
The New Digital Language of “PopAI”
On July 17, 2025, a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert captured Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and HR chief Kristin Cabot embracing, prompting viral speculation of an affair. The lead singer’s on-stage comment, "Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy”, as well as the couple’s obvious alarm at being caught on camera,... Continue Reading →
The Dangers of the AI Hype
A version of this post was originally published on E-IR website and can be found here According to Dr. Dan Kotliar, technological advancements are accompanied by a certain degree of hype, or hyperbolic discourse. The internet, for example, was accompanied by a democratization hype with scholars and pundits arguing that the internet would enable new... Continue Reading →
AI and the Decline of Reality in Public Diplomacy
By Giles Strachan and Ilan Manor In 1957, the physicist Hugh Everett proposed the Many-worlds Interpretation of reality. Quantum physicists had discovered that fundamental information about particles was unknowable until the particles were observed. At this point, reality re-asserts itself, as in the famous example of Schrödinger’s cat, which is both alive and dead until... Continue Reading →
Leveraging AI in Diplomacy: LLMs As Opinion Aggregators
The rapid development of AI tools has caused a frenzy in foreign ministries (MFAs) as diplomats across the world are trying to identify the risks and benefits brought about by artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, Mistral, Claude, Gemini and DeepSeek. Diplomats’ attempts to grapple with the professional and societal ramifications of AI has taken... Continue Reading →
AI Power and its Impact on Digital Diplomacy Research
Throughout the 1980s, noted British historian Eric Hobsbawm delivered a series of lectures examining the academic study of history, and the state of social history, his chosen field. Hobsbawm’s lectures offer much needed insight into the study of digital diplomacy, in general, and the study of AI’s potential impact on diplomacy. For example, Hobsbawm argued... Continue Reading →