THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2024 27 television personalities. Today, New York University psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation (2024), argues that AI will make social media even more toxic for our most vulnerable members of society, including children and adolescents. According to researchers, lifelike conversations with chatbots could widen social distance and increase loneliness. And this, in turn, could further polarize democratic societies. Diplomats tasked with forming a global consensus on a contentious issue may find it impossible to reconcile differences with polarized national governments. Be Ready for Surprises Another surprising cultural shift driven by AI is foreign language study. According to the Modern Language Association, total enrollment in courses teaching a language other than English at American universities was down more than 16 percent from 2016 to 2021. The causes are multifaceted; still, the ubiquity, accuracy, and ease of AI-based translation tools make foreign language study less appealing. How that trend could change diplomacy 10 or 20 years from now is anyone’s guess. As an old Danish proverb states, it is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. One thing we can be sure of is that, just as personal computers and the internet changed our day-to-day reality, this next technological leap will similarly transform much of our lives in ways we can scarcely imagine. Another analogy that could help us navigate AI might be globalization. Economists are largely united in the net positive effect of global trade—but the key word for diplomats is “net.” Globalization produced winners and losers, and the latter may be driving a resurgence in right-wing politics among Western democracies. Similarly, AI may be a net positive for the global economy—yet managing its negative externalities could be vital to preventing another set of unforeseen consequences. Ultimately, our responsibility as international affairs professionals is to understand the fundamentals of this new technology so we can better address its evolution. We must watch AI closely or risk being caught off guard when the ground shifts beneath us. n
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