The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: So, welcome, everyone, to networking session on Transforming Diplomacy for a Shared Tomorrow. I'm Sebastian Blum, program manager at the Data Innovation Lab, and I'm more than excited to be your moderator for today's session. As said before, the session is brought to you by the Data Innovation Lab, and we are discussing a crucial topic which is the transformative force of AI and AI‑powered tools in diplomacy.
In this session we wanted to showcase what AI‑powered tools bring in trade policy, and we wanted to initially offer a platform for open dialogue among different Government representatives from different regions. As you can see, there have been some minor changes in the setting of the panel because we had some cancellations, so we were actually thinking to focus a little bit more on the work of the Data Innovation Lab in the next following 25 minutes.
Having said that, let me briefly set the stage a bit about how AI is actually already reshaping the practice of diplomacy and talk a bit about the changes in our work that we are already witnessing at the Data Innovation Lab itself.
Firstly, we can see that AI tools amplify diplomatic capacity. For example, NLP algorithms can extract key insights and transform transcripts, meetings, minutes and diplomatic records facilitating creation of timely reports. The huge amount of data and AI holds capacity for predictive analytics by leveraging historical and real time data to forecast geopolitical trends and potential outcomes for policy decisions. Lastly, we are also witnessing major Foreign Ministries racing ahead with AI adoption, and this is definitely highlighting that the integration of AI for sure is urgent and vital, and, therefore, investing in AI capacity and more importantly literacy is necessary.
Otherwise diplomates may risk losing ground. With this context in mind, I would like to turn it to our speaker and my dear colleague Claire Patzig who is junior data associate at the Data Innovation Lab at the Federal Republic of Germany from the FFO, and I'm honored to have this exciting panel can you today.
I would like to hand over, but before a small procedural note, like we are having a short introduction by Claire with inputs afterward due to the circumstances we are having this panel now we want to open the floor to you to share your experiences and let some space for your questions. So, Claire, the floor is yours, you might share some of the challenges and opportunities in integrating diplomatic practices.
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: Thank you for the kind introduction. I'm going to speak about this topic from the view of a computer scientist and someone who is actually developing the software. I want to highlight that one thing is similar for every software development process.
It's about the people you are developing for, and in this case we are talking about diplomats. The sheer practice of diplomacy is something that we at the end of the day every single person does that. We are negotiating every day, and in this case we are talking about discipline and tradition and governments are dealing with the most sensitive currently happening worldwide. It's about core values of people, and in this case, it's been communication. We are talking about something where people have hundreds of years of experience with, and I mean on a large scale, we are using large language models probably since ChatGPT about nine years ago. It's not about technology being arrogant and saying we can replace human beings, but instead it's about enriching what we are currently doing.
I think this has shown in the take that the German has taken, so in this approach, every German federal ministry has a data lab, so it's from the ground up. Technology is really developed for the people actually using that in their use cases and so also the German federal fund office has a Data Innovation Lab, and it serves to communicate those findings to the outside world, connect with other partners. This is why we are organising this networking session as well as developing also prototypes themselves.
And, therefore I want to bring in three current use cases we are working on to really also showcase how rich diplomacy is.
So we just had a megathon last week with students on virtual embassies. Here we are talking about public diplomacy. To it's not about the practice of diplomacy itself, but it's about our citizens abroad as well as people 234 other countries who want to learn about Germany or who may be coming to Germany. Here we see as a use case that we might have an embassy in the capital, but the remote areas where people might have issues traveling to the capital for an embassy, so we are really thinking about the system of virtual embassies where we might be able to offer our services in countries that we might not even have due to the current political environment or natural catastrophes be unable to open an embassy, and here we may be able to still provide the service to those people.
If you look at the practice of diplomacy, we are looking at negotiations. We had a huge challenge on developing tools supporting diplomats and focusing on working with diplomats instead of working for them and currently we are working together with huge federal ministries as well as the GIZ on developing a negotiation tool for the upcoming COP, and here it's also about providing a service not only for Germany, but open sourcing them and sort of leveling the playing field.
Most of the people in this room made be following the WSIS process and just following this one process and keeping an eye on everything that is going on, all of the other institutions publishing on that, just what the UN is putting out is a lot.
Governments are fast to follow everything ‑‑ forced to follow everything going on and for large countries like Germany, this is a lot. Here we really see a use case for AI again, in sort of combining all of that knowledge and really making it easier for diplomats to stay ahead with everything.
And last but not least, it is about capacity building so obviously our academy knows what they are doing but still supporting young diplomats in their journey is something where we need individual support and we are developing, I'm doing that myself, a prototype to train young diplomats to bring them in lots of many different situations, being able to come up fast with arguments and here we think that this is a use case that is interesting to every Ministry of Foreign affairs globally and very, again, we want to stress working together and coming up with tools that really support each other.
So here it's about having you as an audience reaching out to us, sharing what you are working on and we have interactive dialogue.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: Thank you so much. I think you really were drawing to the point that the data innovation itself was actually resulting out of the data and AI led by the federal foreign office. Drawing a little bit back to that, you are also referring to some different partnerships and initiatives.
What do you think such initiatives as the Data Innovation Act, how do they help promote the responsible use of AI in diplomacy?
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: I think the responsible use here is that we are not talking about something like cancer detection. We can benchmark and say we have an accuracy of 98%. If we are talking about diplomacy, we don't have those clearly defined goals. It's a very broad approach, and here we have to see how it can enhance diplomacy instead of being noise that takes away from the human connection that is at the core of it.
And there again, it's about cultural sensitivity, like German diplomats might have a different focus than other parts of the world and we learn from shared partnerships in this area, because it's about the practice, not really about the content, whatever negotiation, whether it's climate or peace or whatever, it's not about that only. It's about the discipline and learning from each other again.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: Thank you so much. Having said that, I would really like to hand over to the floor as well to our online participants. Feel free to ask any questions to us about the Data Innovation Lab. Also feel invited to introduce yourself and maybe share your perspectives or expertise in the field of AI and diplomacy, and you are also invited to present yourself.
So the floor is yours.
We are also checking the online participants, so if there is any question by our online audience, you are very welcome to pose some questions.
Let me check if there are questions in the chat.
>> AUDIENCE: Hi, I work for Reset tech. A global organisation, and I would love to understand how the Data Innovation Lab is I guess dealing with the fact that a lot of these tools are sort of not from the European Union and how like obviously in the diplomatic sphere these geopolitical dimensions play a role, and how is that reflected on the technical level in the tools that you employ?
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: Thank you so much for the question. Here it's really about highlighting the work of the data lab of the federal ‑‑ foreign office.
We developed something ‑‑ that makes it easier for me to develop and have more freedom in those processes. We just hosted data talk. So this is also, we are not only focused on developing tools, but also about sort of soft aspects of that, so about coming upping what is possible.
communicating what is possible. We do that with workshops, embassies, partners worldwide and being present at conferences as well as inviting amazing speakers to our data talks and we hosted one on open source, so we are really also focusing on using different tools that aren't maybe only connected to certain countries and we are able to host ourselves. We try to take that in account in our own work, and then again, it's about partnerships, right, about even we are currently hearing a lot about sovereignty and Europe being sovereign itself, and even though there are many important key steps we have to take, it's technology can't exist on its own just in one nation, right.
We have the Internet Governance Forum, we are talking about deep interconnections, and we have to take that into account and be realistic about what we are developing, and in some cases, if it's not about something very sensitive, we can also still obviously work with other partners and not have to do everything on our own because that can be, I think, also too much for other current ministries of foreign affairs that might still not have the capacities to develop tools themselves.
And there again, I think it's the same point again and again. We are coming back to partnerships with countries that support the same values and developing together.
And obviously we have dependency, but that's something that's important that is enrichment to what we are doing.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: Thank you so much. Are there any other questions?
>> AUDIENCE: Hi, my name is Togo, I work with the German international cooperation agency, GIZ. I have a follow up question on what you were elaborating on, I thought it was interesting, you talked about interconnectedness, interdependencies and previously you told us that basically every German ministry has its own data lab. We are a Government owned company in Germany we also have our data lab, we work on solutions like this.
What I'm interested in is how do you look at interoperability in such a bottom up approach from the technical perspective? How do you ensure that all of these solutions being developed are able to communicate with each other and to link up even to the rest of the world? Thank you.
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: Yes, so there we are coming back again to plain, this was the point to make it easier for data labs to share data within Government and to work together. We see that there is a peer‑to‑peer network established so that our data scientists are able to communicate and discuss what they are currently focusing on. Then again, I think for, I maybe have within the Government a new ministry this will always be an issue that you constantly have to work on and I think there is lots that you can do in that regard, but, for example, together with GIZ and for other ministries, we are currently working together on one shared project, and that's just about discussing clear responsibilities and getting everyone on board.
And then with a shared goal in mind it's obviously very much possible to work together because we have one single focus. And here we see especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because we are not solely focused on one issue, but we are covering many, many topics and, therefore, we are used to working together with other ministries and the experts working on those topics.
So it's bringing that into the digital sphere and our data scientists as a mindset. So that is very important to Government.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: This was particularly interesting because we were talking more about the technological aspects, but what are the organizational challenges in our work that you are witnessing coming out from a specific position inside of the organisation of the federal foreign office?
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: It's, I think it's about clearly it's about, it's the same thing, it's about communicate communication, and clearly communicating with the technical community. It's not about replacing anything that's going on, but enriching.
And at the same time, obviously people have lots of experience and they know what they are doing, so you have to adapt to new processes. I think something, everyone struggles within all areas, for example, how you sort of collect data to have that in a format that works for the technical community, but that might not be relevant for the people who are currently working as experts on that topic.
There it's about capacity building and about data literacy and coming back to the basics again and again.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: Thank you so much. I see we have another question on the floor.
>> AUDIENCE: Hi, is it on? My name is Maureen Hilliard, I'm from an underserved region. I'm from the Cook Islands, one of the Small Island States in the Pacific. One of the things that I have actually sort of found in the 20 years I have lived on that little island is that we would be really appreciative of developing tools of development for diplomats. People in the Pacific, the Government is actually elected by the small communities, people that, you know, someone within the community, no experience whatsoever with Government sort of processes and things like that. But there seem to be nice people, so they get elected to Government., but there is no training. I do know there is no training for the diplomacy skills, the sort of skills that many of these people get sent overseas just to work with other ministries in the area.
I was just wondering does your hub, does it provide sort of like training facilities for underserved regions where Government officials have really do require those skills be really important. I sit and listen, when I sort of like think of how wonderful some of the Governments are and the work that they are doing, you know, I know that our guys go out to these important meetings and they are absolutely overwhelmed because they just don't have that knowledge that they need. So I just wanted to put it out there. Thank you.
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: Thank you so much. This is what our work is about, and this is why we are not focusing on a single negotiation or a single topic, but really about the art of diplomacy. So our tools are supposed to be open source. We are more than happy, I mean, this is what the session is about to connect and to share them and to also look at in the development process what other regions might need and have an introduction into the tools, how we can go on from that, and, yes, this is all what it's about, I suppose.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: Also to give some clarification, right now we are still a small and growing organisation, so having the questions you just posed always in mind, of course, a long time version would enhance different nations using these tools and do some kind of facilitation and capacity building, but, of course, this session, the long term vision of the Data Innovation Lab itself, is, of course, a more networked approach with different stakeholders and an invitation to some of the organisations that might already sit here in the panel as well.
So I just checked the chat. I see we have two questions from the chat. The first one by Christian is how can you make sure that AI used in diplomacy is free from cultural, political or data‑driven bias?
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: This is one of the obvious largest issues and why it's very important to discuss that together with Government officials from other countries to keep that very much in mind. I think when it comes to political biases, it's somewhat easier because you, for example, we are currently very much focusing on the official UN documents and so on, so in that case it's not really about the bias, but really on focusing which documents are relevant to us, and those have to be read any way.
Cultural biases are way more complicated and that, for example, is why I'm working on this negotiation or trainer for negotiations, keeping in mind how you speak, talk, discuss in other countries might not be the German approach.
This is obviously a huge part of our training of young diplomats.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: In regards of time, we still have questions in the chat. I'm trying to take on two of these. The first one would be is there any practical example where I already improve diplomatic task for decision? Well, actually we are debating this yesterday because, of course, there has been reports by major ministries such as the State Department majorly integrating some large language models and Gen AI tools in the work that apparently facilitated the work, but for right now I think a lot of bots and other tools are still being tested, but, Claire, maybe you want to add your experiences you were witnessing for that.
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: I think we see more general use cases that you might see all over the place which aren't really tailored to diplomacy itself. I think if you look at other countries like the U.K., they are having major effort in their embassies to offer different services. Also the UN, for example, in their peace negotiations sort of discussing with the citizens who were part of that negotiation a huge sort of questioning with AI and I think in that case it was really useful to use AI because with just humans you cover as many people. Yes, I think those are the first ones that come to mind.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: Thank you so much. We have some minutes left, but there are still some questions left in the chat. The last one would be is there a generational approach on the process of developing AI tools for diplomats?
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: Yes, it might be a bit more irritating because you see quiet young people currently on stage. Obviously we have people from all generations developing in the federal foreign office. I do think that there is some value, for example, of people like me who really bring sort of what is currently happening within the Academia and like very new approaches, especially in the area of prototyping, but technology really does not have, it doesn't have any age gap, and it's about expertise and about experience of software development processes, so we try to bring all of that together.
And then in the sort of deployment side, so people actually using them, we, again, have everything from young diplomats currently in training to very experienced, negotiation happening currently, and it's about communication and about data literacy. So really, I guess, sort of discussing those issues where people currently are and not sort of expecting already existing knowledge, but really talking about the issues they might have and the questions. There are no dumb questions, right?
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: That's for sure, and what I think is we are definitely witnessing a cultural change because regarding our work it becomes also clear that the sessions we were actually delivering on data literacy, for example, in Geneva surrounding AI for good, these events are those events visited and followed by the most. And I think our own organisation is also reflecting this cultural change inside the federal foreign office having a team of ten people actually mostly being around the age of like 202040. So we can see that there are organizational changes also happening now surrounding us.
Regarding the time, I think we are almost done and in interest of the remaining time, I wanted to use the last run actually for having short takeaways. What do you think we should keep in mind closing this session on the diplomacy of the future.
>> CLAIRE PATZIG: Just the deeply human centred approach about making connections, about enriching what's already going on, about using AI as something that levels the playing field, not about something that only serves specific countries, so, again, open sourcing a lot. Yes, and communicating about what we really need instead of just doing something for the sake of using AI.
>> SEBASTIAN BLUM: Thank you so much. And I think with these last words, we would like to thank you from the Data Innovation Lab for participating in this enriching discussion, and also we would like to invite you to join us in our following discussions and follow our debates. And we are more than happy to participate and engage with the upcoming discussions with you. Thank you so much.
(Applause).