I'd like an AI mediator, please
We fight wars with tech. But how effective is tech in making mediation better? Conciliation Resources' latest edition of ACCORD probes the question.
You’re caught in a conflict. Would you feel safer with an AI mediator than a real human? Martin Wäehlisch, from the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, imagines a future with digital assistants act as objective counterparts to human mediators, capable of leading discussions and offering solutions.
His article AI and the Future of Mediation is one of a bouquet of eight insightful articles on Mediating with and on Technology in this months edition of ACCORD 30 by Conciliation Resources. Against the backdrop of “profound geopolitical polarisation, surging armed conflict, deep technological change, and the rising prominence of systemic threats such as the climate emergency and the risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI) and infectious disease," editor Teresa Whitfield invites readers to explore how mediation is innovating and adapting — including to technology.
Digital Inclusion in Dialogue and Mediation
Helena Puig-Laurrari, Co-Founder and Strategy Lead at Build Up, emphasizes the transformative impact of digital technologies in mediation. She writes, "The field of mediation needs to be digital by default, considering opportunities and managing risks, just as it considers all other aspects of human interaction and power dynamics that impact the prospects of peace.”
Breaking Barriers to Participation with Technology
Julie Hawke, Digital Peacebuilding Lead at Build Up, discusses the promise of technology in enhancing inclusion in mediation and peace processes but also the risks. "Digital tools are able to address concrete barriers that otherwise hinder participation, such as geographic distance, language needs, limited access to information, low literacy, and siloed networks,"she explains.
Social media listening : an example from Nigeria
Medinat Abdulazeez Malefakis, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Development and Cooperation at ETH Zurich, and the Nigeria Country Project Coordinator for the Global Survivors Fund points to how social media ‘listening’ can be a critical part of conflict analysis. She writes: “Social media analytics can both deepen understanding of conflict actors and redirect the focus of public conversation. In the case of Boko Haram, for example, in addition to informing analysis of the insurgent group’s internal dynamics, social media has given a platform to actors that have well-established links with it and in communities where Boko Haram recruits, with the potential to serve as opinion shapers and influencers for changing terrorist narratives.”
Social media peace agreements
Govinda Clayton and Maude Morrison of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) with Sean Kane of the UN Mediation Support Unit lay out how tech has been used for war, and how it is increasingly being integrated into peace agreements. They offer examples of how digital technologies can be included in the principles, practices and processes in peace agreements, and also address ceasefires. They cite over the past decade that “simple provisions related to harmful social media use have emerged in national and local ceasefires (Kenya, Libya, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen), and local internet shutdowns have been ended following ceasefires in northern Ethiopia and Myanmar (Rakhine).”
Addressing hateful content online: advice for peacebuilders
The effect on peace of hateful and divisive content online is explored by Ravi Iyer, Managing Director of the University of Southern California Marshall School’s Neely Center and Co-Chair of the Council on Tech and Social Cohesion. It’s difficult to moderate ‘fear’, he writes. “Inciting fear of oppression, not hate, is a tactic that is often used on social media across conflicts by divisive actors seeking to consolidate power by perpetuating conflict,” he writes. “Unfortunately, there is no reasonable and legitimate way to disentangle unjust from just expressions of fear.”
Rather, he advises to focus on advocating for change in the algorithms that amplify divisive content. “In this way, you can prevent the next actors from gaming the algorithm, rather than simply removing today’s examples of harmful content.”
Embracing Digital Innovation in Mediation
At a moment when it’s easy to point to the failure of the peacebuilding field as the human suffering caused by war accelerates, it is crucial to find ways for digital technology to improve our ability to mediate. The articles across this Accord issued reflect an adapting field of mediation, reaching to harness the potential of technology to generate effective, inclusive, and transformative peace processes.