Critical Evaluation of AI-Powered Digital Dialogue Tools in Peacemaking: Insights from United Nations’ Digital Dialogues in Libya and Yemen
Abstract: This paper critically examines the use of AI-powered digital dialogue tools by United Nations’ peacemakers in Libya and Yemen. AI-powered digital dialogues claim to transform the peacemaking field as peace mediators deploy AI-powered digital dialogues to facilitate real-time conversations between thousands of individuals simultaneously (Alavi et al. 2022). Peace mediation teams inform and receive instant feedback from large numbers of civil society actors. As such, proponents of these innovations claim that AI-powered digital dialogue tools have the potential to speed up the signing of peace agreements without sacrificing principles of inclusivity (Bilich et al. 2019). Since June 2020, mediators of the United Nations have been using AI-powered digital dialogue tools in the Libyan and Yemeni peace processes. However, the evidence supporting such positive contributions of technological innovations to peacemaking efforts is thin (Richmond and Visoka 2021; Richmond and Tellidis 2020). Through qualitative interviews with individuals who participated in digital dialogue sessions, this study provides insights into the benefits, shortcomings, and risks of using digital dialogue tools in peacemaking processes. Drawing on the cultural turn in Peace Studies, the study critiques the techno-solutionist promise of AI-powered digital dialogue tools. Preliminary findings suggest that using AI-powered digital dialogues exacerbates the impact of digital divides, produces new privacy concerns, and violates conflict sensitivity principles and do-no-harm approaches. The application of AI-based digital dialogue tools in Libya and Yemen also signals that the penetration of techno-solutionism in the peacemaking field reproduces widely criticized colonial power dynamics between the global North and South, and between the global and local. Finally, the study shares critical reflections on whether and how AI-powered digital dialogue should be deployed to make peace processes more inclusive.
Author bio: Ali Altiok is a doctoral student in the joint Ph.D. program on Peace Studies and Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on political inclusion and the securitization of young people in the context of peacebuilding processes. Previously, he has worked as a researcher, policy officer, and coordinator for several international peacebuilding organizations in New York City. As an in-house research consultant at the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office, he supported data analysis and narrative development of the Missing Peace: Independent Progress Study on Youth, Peace, and Security, mandated by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250. He co-authored the policy paper, We Are Here: An Integrated Approach to Youth Inclusive Peace Processes for the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth. His work highlights what is transformative to youth agency in peacebuilding and social change. He is a former member of the United Networks of Young Peacebuilders. He holds an M.A. in Political, Legal, and Economic Philosophy from the University of Bern (Switzerland) and an M.A. in Peace and Security Studies from the University of Hamburg (Germany). He is originally from Turkey.
Recorded Presentation | 27 April 2023
#NLP #Peacemakers/Youth #Libya #Yemen
