{"title":"Navigating uncertainty: public diplomacy vs. AI","authors":"Luigi Di Martino, Heather Ford","doi":"10.1057/s41254-024-00330-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Some have heralded generative AI models as an opportunity to inform diplomacy and support diplomats’ communication campaigns. Others have argued that generative AI is inherently untrustworthy because it simply manages probabilities and doesn’t consider the truth value of statements. In this article, we examine how AI applications are built to smooth over uncertainty by providing a single answer among multiple possible answers and by presenting information in a tone and form that demands authority. We contrast this with the practices of public diplomacy professionals who must grapple with both epistemic and aleatory uncertainty head on to effectively manage complexities through negotiation. We argue that the rise of generative AI and its “operationalization of truth” invites us to reflect on the possible shortcoming of AI’s application to public diplomacy practices and to recognize how prominent uncertainty is in public diplomacy practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":47147,"journal":{"name":"Place Branding and Public Diplomacy","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Place Branding and Public Diplomacy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-024-00330-z","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Some have heralded generative AI models as an opportunity to inform diplomacy and support diplomats’ communication campaigns. Others have argued that generative AI is inherently untrustworthy because it simply manages probabilities and doesn’t consider the truth value of statements. In this article, we examine how AI applications are built to smooth over uncertainty by providing a single answer among multiple possible answers and by presenting information in a tone and form that demands authority. We contrast this with the practices of public diplomacy professionals who must grapple with both epistemic and aleatory uncertainty head on to effectively manage complexities through negotiation. We argue that the rise of generative AI and its “operationalization of truth” invites us to reflect on the possible shortcoming of AI’s application to public diplomacy practices and to recognize how prominent uncertainty is in public diplomacy practices.
期刊介绍:
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy?is a pioneering journal and the first to concentrate on this fast-growing field. Its scope and reach is global and culturally unbiased. Its primary objective is to broaden the understanding of the nature purposes and benefits of both place branding and public diplomacy and to demonstrate how place branding and public diplomacy strategies are implemented in practice.Place branding is the practice of applying brand strategy and other techniques and disciplines - some deriving from commercial practice others newly developed - to the economic social political and cultural development of cities regions and countries. Public diplomacy is the process by which an international actor – often but not exclusively a country – conducts foreign policy by engaging a foreign public. Public Diplomacy and Place Branding are not synonyms but their overlaps are sufficient to justify a journal which considers both activities in their own right and at their point of convergence.Both Place Branding and Public Diplomacy are significantly but not exclusively concerned with reputation management.