AI and IR Research: What Challenges Lie Ahead?

Since the launch of ChatGPT on 30 November 2022, several commentators have interrogated the possible impact of AI-based tools on education, at all levels. Somehow less explored has been the impact of AI on research and scholarly publishing. Major publishers have issued policy guidelines about the use of AI tools in content creation, but these have usually been limited to general statements calling for a transparent and responsible use of such tools and prohibiting the inclusion of AIs as a listed author. Against this backdrop, The International Spectator (TIS), the quarterly IR journal edited by Rome-based think tank Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), organizes with ISA (International Studies Association) an online round table on the impact of AI on IR research and publishing.

The round table is intended as an opportunity for an open discussion around questions such as: Should the use of applications based on generative AI, in particular so-called prompting techniques, become a basic competence for students and researchers? What are the challenges, biases and risks posed by the use of AI in the selection and analysis of academic sources? How should we assess the impact of generative AI on scientific inequality – and how could the negative effects be limited? Could the emerging development of culture-specific AIs – such as Krurtrim, the self-claimed “India’s own AI” – potentially reinforce and reproduce existing hierarchies, biases and practices?

Programme

Chair
Leo Goretti, Head of the Italian Foreign Policy Programme, Istituto Affari Internazionali and editor of The International Spectator, the peer-reviewed English-language journal of IAI

Panelist
Anselm Küsters, Head of the Department of Digitisation / New Technologies, Centre for European Policy
Stella Morgana, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Liverpool
Ananya Sharma, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Department of International Relations, Ashoka University