AI-Assisted Diplomatic Decision-Making During Crises: Challenges and Opportunities
Neeti Pokhriyal, Till Koebe · Frontiers in Big Data · 2023
Diplomatic instruments and ad-hoc intelligence are essential for crisis response. While artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly finding uses in diplomatic decision-making during crises, the focus here is to highlight some of the unique opportunities as well as the critical challenges, including ethical ones, that need to be mitigated. Some of the critical challenges during crises include decision-making using limited information in high-stakes and resource-constrained settings, often characterized by scenarios where mistrust and strategic misuse of information are prevalent, and have traditionally relied on value-laden judgments of diplomats. To address these challenges and to enable broader integration of AI in diplomatic decision-making, we state three necessary pre-enablers focusing on technical approaches, spanning (1) responsible data sharing mechanisms that balance the tradeoffs between blending data and disclosure and privacy risk; (2) human-centered algorithmic advances in development and robust testing and validation of AI that efficiently embeds humans’ value-laden decision-making with the speed of response that is needed in crisis times; and (3) substantive capacity-building efforts that bolster skills and workforce development for those working in diplomatic missions, and pre-planning efforts for crisis response. Responsibly employing AI in diplomatic decision-making remains an evolving field and will be shaped by technical advances in AI research and ethics communities, new policy, legal, and regulatory landscapes governing the deployment, operationalization, and accountability when these technologies err, as well as public and societal attitudes of trust towards these technologies.