The Sunday Mail
Marcia Mukono and Panashe Ronica Zaranyika
ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) has had a significant impact on diplomacy, both in terms of its potential benefits and drawbacks.
Here are some of the ways in which AI has affected diplomacy:
- Improved communication and translation
AI-powered communication tools and translation software have made it easier for diplomats to communicate with one another, especially when working with different languages. These tools can help to reduce misunderstandings and improve the speed and accuracy of communication.
- Data analysis
AI can help to analyse large amounts of data quickly, which can be useful for diplomats who need to gather and analyse information from a variety of sources. This can help to identify patterns and trends that might not be immediately apparent to human analysts.
- Predictive analytics
AI can help to predict potential conflicts or crises by analysing patterns in historical data. This can help diplomats to take pre-emptive action to prevent conflicts from escalating.
- Cybersecurity
AI can be used to improve cybersecurity by monitoring networks for potential threats and helping to identify vulnerabilities.
- Autonomous weapons
AI-powered autonomous weapons have the potential to change the nature of warfare, which could have significant implications for diplomacy. The development and deployment of these weapons are a contentious issue, with some arguing that they should be banned.
- Ethics and accountability
AI raises questions about ethics and accountability in diplomacy. For example, if AI is used to make decisions, who is responsible, if those decisions have unintended consequences?
A notable case of AI being used in diplomacy occurred during the 2018 Singapore Summit between leaders of the United States and North Korea. The summit was the first meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, and was widely regarded as a significant diplomatic event.
During the summit, AI was used to provide real-time translation services between the two delegations. The US delegation used an AI-powered device called the “Pilot” to translate between English and Korean, while the North Korean delegation used a similar device called the “Genie”.
These devices were able to provide quick and accurate translations, which helped to facilitate communication between the two sides.
The use of AI translation devices was particularly important in this case, as both delegations spoke different languages and had different cultural backgrounds. The devices helped to reduce misunderstandings and improve the speed and accuracy of communication.
This was particularly important given the high stakes of the summit, which focused on nuclear disarmament and the potential for a peaceful resolution to the long-standing conflict between the US and North Korea.
In Africa, using AI would revolutionise diplomacy. On a continent where there are over 2 000 languages, the swiftness of AI translation would make summits significantly better with more accurate translations.
Conducting business, trade and any form of commerce between regional blocs and states would run significantly smoother while raising and cementing the African sentiment among statesmen. In order to achieve such a phenomenon, there would be need to decolonise diplomacy within the African context.
In the words of Professor Walter Mignolo, an Argentinian scholar, decoloniality seeks to unmask, unveil and reveal coloniality as an underside of modernity that co-existed with its rhetoric of progress, equality, fraternity and liberty.
To successfully implement decoloniality, it is necessary for governments to integrate concepts such as decolonising the mind, moving the centre, re-membering and globalectics.
Decolonising the mind speaks to the urgency of dealing with epistemicides and linguicides.
Moving the centre seeks to address the problem of Euro-North American centrism and influence within Africa.
Re-membering is about uniting a dismembered and fragmented continent and globalectics gestures towards post-racial pluriversality as the home of new humanity.
It is a particular kind of critical intellectual theory, as well as a political project that seeks to disentangle ex-colonised parts of the world from coloniality.
Revolutionising diplomacy to better suit the Pan-African political and socio-economic context within AI would yield African decision-makers who are active and free makers of the future of Africa without external influential interference.
The pace at which African solutions for African problems would spread across all African borders through the decolonised diplomacy and AI could prevent conflicts and mitigate wars by resorting to African soft power interventions in real-time. This would effectively ensure stability and peace within the continent.
While the use of AI translation devices was not without controversy, with some experts raising concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the gadgets, overall, they were seen as a successful application of AI in diplomacy, which was an important step towards reaching a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
However, it also raises important ethical and security concerns that must be addressed.
As AI continues to develop, it will be important for diplomats to carefully consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of its use in diplomacy. Additionally, it will be key for African diplomats to revolutionise their way of conducting business to accommodate the notions of decoloniality that cast in stone the revival and oneness of the African continent.
