Data Innovation Lab: international politics on AI

On 26th August 2024, the Data Innovation Lab, under the German Federal Foreign Office convened AI experts and international policy professionals for a Foreign Policy and AI workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop was jointly organised by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Nairobi, the International Digital Dialogues and the GIZ Digital Transformation Center, Kenya. The workshop aimed at exploring the complex landscapes of AI in Kenya through meaningful discussions while offering networking opportunities to all participants. It was attended by representatives of various embassies, the Government of Kenya, international organisations, the private sector, civil society and academia.  

The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Kenya, H.E Sebastian Groth and H.E. Ambassador Phillip Thigo, the Special Envoy on Technology for the Republic of Kenya attended the workshop and gave their opening remarks.  

The first half of the workshop consisted of presentations from the Data Innovation Lab at the German Federal Foreign Office on how well foreign policy is equipped to address the challenges posed by AI while also examining how to leverage the opportunities this type of emerging technology offers.  

The intersection of AI and Foreign Policy happens predominantly in 3 domains:

1. AI as a topic of foreign policy

• National security implications
• Economic opportunities and risks
• Impacts on democracy
• Internet governance

2. AI as a subject of agreements and treaties, with key global processes including:

• World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
• Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
• Global Digital Compact (GDC) – part of the United Nations Summit of the Future

3. AI as a tool for foreign diplomacy

• Data analysis and situational awareness, such as:
• Analyse global trade data, predict market trends and assess impact of economic policies
• Analyse climate data to assess environmental impact
• Predictive analysis – by leveraging historical and real-time data to forecast geopolitical trends
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms - to extract key insights and trends from diplomatic documents
  • NLP can also analyse large volumes of citizen feedback from diverse sources to enable more citizen-inclusive policy development  

The discussions revolved around definitions of AI as well as the different AI use cases developed for the German Federal Foreign Office, which included an AI challenge on how to leverage AI for international negotiations that can be viewed here: https://www.datainnovationlab.de/aichallenge

Furthermore, H.E. Amb Philip Thigo provided a comprehensive presentation on the position of Kenya with regards to the development of AI, and specifically generative AI. He positioned that Kenya is guided on its position on AI based on the principle: “No harm to Kenyans” – which entails promoting safe, secure, inclusive and trustworthy AI systems. In addition, he outlined Kenya’s key priority technologies for diplomacy, which reach from generative AI and quantum technology, over microchips, to digital infrastructure and cybersecurity.  

The event concluded with a panel moderated by Amrit Singh Labhuram, Digital Dialogues Advisor. The key discussions emanating from the panel centered around promoting African and Kenyan based AI research and development. It was pointed out that sustainable, local investments need to be explored while combatting brain drain in Kenya. Finally, the panellists talked about the creation of data commons to ensure access to data to fuel development of AI innovations. The International Digital Dialogues are committed to creating opportunities for Germany and Kenya to exchange on current and emerging digital topics.