A New Diplomatic Strategy Emerges as Artificial Intelligence Grows

American and Chinese diplomats plan to meet to begin what amounts to the first, tentative arms control talks over the use of artificial intelligence. The talks in Geneva are an attempt to find some common ground on how A.I. will be used and in which situations it could be banned—for example, in the command and control of each country’s nuclear arsenals. For the Biden administration, the conversation represents the first serious foray into a new realm of diplomacy, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about in a speech in San Francisco at the RSA Conference, Silicon Valley’s annual convention on both the technology and the politics of securing cyberspace. The new strategy comes at a time when the early optimism about a “global internet” connecting the world has been shattered. What is left is what Nathaniel Fick, the State Department’s first ambassador for cyberspace and digital policy, who is expected to play a key role in the discussions with China, refers to as a “fragmented system” that is unlikely to ever be sewn back together. “Just about everyone is willing to acknowledge that technology is an important element of foreign policy, but I would argue that tech is not just part of the game — it’s increasingly the entire game,” Fick said. “Think about it—asymmetric advantage in the war in Ukraine, global competition with China on key technologies, the ability of Israel and its allies to intercept Iranian aerial attacks. All tech. The international order will be defined by whose metaphorical operating system dominates.”