THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2024 35 Evanna Hu is the CEO of Omelas and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, specializing in the intersection of emerging technologies and national security. She is also a part of the Aspen Global Leaders Network and has won numerous awards for her work in using tech for good. AI Disruption and Responsible Use in Diplomacy A vision of how AI will be integrated into our U.S. democratic society is needed. State can contribute to the discussion. BY EVANNA HUAlthough this is a made-up scenario, a version of which was used at a war-gaming exercise at a prominent think tank in Washington, D.C., it is not far-fetched from current reality; the technology already exists. With the explosion of ChatGPT into the consumer market a year and a half ago, AI adoption continues to grow at an exponential rate. is has forced governments, civil society, and the private sector to think about what roles AI should play and how it should be regulated. Plenty has been published arguing for various positions, but the two common poles of the debate are the decelerationists, who want a pause in AI development and a minimal role for it in society, and the accelerationists, including OpenAI and Meta, who are gunning for AI to be embedded in every aspect of society and making huge investments toward the goal of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI with capabilities that rival those of a human. The State Department has dipped its toes into these discussions with the October 2023 publication of “Enterprise Artificial Intelligence Strategy FY 2024-2025: Empowering Diplomacy Through Responsible AI,” guidelines for the use of AI within the State Department. While it is a good start, the document is so focused on specific implementation steps that it misses the forest for the trees. It does not offer a vision of how statecraft will be affected by AI. “Good first morning of 2030. You logged 3 hours, 41 minutes of total sleep with only 9 percent in REM and 12 percent in slow wave sleep, with a recovery score of 14 percent due to the consumption of 2 glasses of alcohol the night before. While you were asleep, I compiled an intel memo of the crisis in the Middle East from real-time verified OSINT [open-source intelligence] sources. The BLUF [bottom line up front] is that overnight, chatbot Netanyahu continues to shift policy positions to the orthodox right while chatbot Abu Mazen is writing the latest version of two-state solution legislation in real-time based on public comments and engagements on his Viber channel.” “Thank you, AI. And what about our AI regulation on the Hill?” “It continues to be deadlocked as lawmakers can’t agree on what American society should look like with the existence of AI. The tech evangelists want AI to be meshed in everyday life, close to singularity; the decelerationists want to limit the use of AI until they know exactly what the impact is; and the defense hawks want no regulations at all so that the U.S. can beat China. The American public is apathetic and only wants to use AI to simplify their lives.” FOCUS ON AI FOR DIPLOMACY
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