People
Jovan Kurbalija
Executive Director, Diplo
Jovan Kurbalija can be described as a Takumi Master of AI. Like Takumi in Japanese tradition, Jovan has spent 32 years working on AI. Since 1992, when he wrote this thesis on expert systems (AI) and international law, he has been polishing his mastery of AI through philosophical reflections and practical actions.
His approach of walking AI talk is behind Diplo’s humAInism approach that anchors practical AI tolls in the nexus of the humanist tradition of arts, philosophy, diplomacy, and governance.
Complex AI concepts become simple and tangible through Diplo’s seamless interplay between human and artificial intelligence in teaching, researching, and management built around the cognitive proximity approach.
Chat with Jovan
This is Jovan’s AI assistant mimicking his thinking based on his articles, books, and writings. Please let me know your questions…
Current focus (summer 2024)
We asked Jovan Kurbalija about his plans for the summer. Here is his answers…
Like previous summers, I will use the next two months to tighten loose thinking ends and revisit notes and diaries. Last summer, I focused on ‘Recycling Ideas’ for AI governance. This year, I will use AI to help me organise my thinking. Here is my plan for the summer:
Finalise a few pending manuscripts: experiment with the KaiZen publishing method, which combines human creativity with AI as a ‘desk researcher’. I will work on the following books:
Revisit the Cognitive Proximity approach in Diplo’s management and organisation: what works and does not work; what are anthropoid-psychological limits of this approach; how to nurture more ‘boundary spanners’ who connect various teaching, research, and admin tasks; how to reduce pressure on existing ‘boundary spanners’ who tend to be overloaded by organisational inertia; how to inform management schools and organisational researchers on our experience from using cognitive proximity as organisational approach to AI era.
Update on AI tech developments: Is there anything new on foundational models, RAG, and knowledge graphs or on the tech horizon from labs?
Revisit the ‘Recycling Ideas’ reflections on AI and philosophy from summer 2023: anything new in ‘old’ AI narratives on ethics; more insights into non-western philosophical tradition with a focus on: the relevance of embodiment in Asian religious and cultural tradition (e.g. use of chips to control our corporal functions including hormonal system and cognition; the relevance of rituals, especially in Confucianism, for preserving the centrality of humans in societal systems; the AI relevance of Russian epistemological thinking (school of Gustav Spet); ethics in African oral cultures.
Update EspriTech de Geneva: Develop ideas and thinking that may inspire actors in Geneva to prepare for the major paradigm shift in how international organisations and diplomacy operate (e.g. reporting, drafting, analysis, engagement).
Finalise Diplo’s pedagogy for the AI era: Revisit our experiments in using AI in the teaching process (e.g. AI campus); try to ensure the centrality of human critical thinking while using AI for cognitive tasks with less complexity – e.g. tasks that require simple ‘pattern recognition’ such as data analysis and simple drafting.
Use AI to deal with a ‘compliance tsunami’: Growing compliance requirements focusing on formalities instead of activities is an existential risk for Diplo’s way of working as our work is built around the Ocammist approach of working in simple and agile way within legal and admin requirements. It is increasingly difficult to sustain such approach as ‘compliance requirements’ move beyond just complaining (following rules) towards requesting complaining procedures, which often require building big administration.
As compliance requirements are often built around repetitive patterns, I will try to develop an AI system for delivering compliance reports. It is also interesting that many calls for the ‘sustainability’ of organisations are not related to the sustainability of their core work (teaching, research, thinking) but to the sustainability of ‘compliance’ (administration structures). If we can automate compliance reporting, we can help Diplo and many small organisations and businesses face the same difficulties.
If you want to receive updates on my progress, please let me know at jovank@diplomacy.edu
Bio
Dr Jovan Kurbalija is the Executive Director of DiploFoundation and Head of the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP). He was a member of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (2004‒2005), special advisor to the Chairman of the UN Internet Governance Forum (2006‒2010), and a member of the High Level Multistakeholder Committee for NETmundial (2013‒2014). In 2018-2019, he served as co-Executive Director of the Secretariat of the United Nations (UN) High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation.
A former diplomat, Jovan has a professional and academic background in international law, diplomacy, and information technology. He has been a pioneer in the field of cyber diplomacy since 1992, when he established the Unit for Information Technology and Diplomacy at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta and later, DiploFoundation.
Since 1997, Jovan’s research and articles on cyber diplomacy have shaped research and policy discussions on the impact of the Internet on diplomacy and international relations. His book, An Introduction to Internet Governance, has been translated into 9 languages and is used as a textbook for academic courses worldwide. He lectures on e-diplomacy and Internet governance in academic and training institutions in many countries, including Austria (Diplomatic Academy of Vienna), Belgium (College of Europe), Switzerland (University of St Gallen), Malta (University of Malta), and the United States (University of Southern California).
His publishes regular articles on DiploFoundation’s blog, and the Huffington Post.
