Towards AI-Enhanced Public Diplomacy? A Quantum Reflection
摘要
Over the past two decades, digital technologies have disrupted the practice of public diplomacy giving rise to new norms, values, and practices among diplomats and ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs). This chapter seeks to examine how artificial intelligence (AI) could further disrupt the practice of public diplomacy. The chapter uses concepts and theories from quantum mechanics to argue that AI will further accelerate the fragmentation of digital publics into networks that subscribe to different definitions of reality. AI-generated content, disseminated and filtered through social media algorithms, may create a plurality of plausible realities to which networked individuals subscribe. The chapter further argues that public diplomacy by nature seeks to create a shared definition of reality between states and publics. As such, AI presents a substantial challenge to the practice of public diplomacy, one that could be overcome through diplomatic collaboration with epistemic communities and the bolstering of epistemic authority. The chapter concludes by outlining how such collaborations may prove more beneficial than existing attempts to regulate AI at the national or international level.