The United Nations will use AI to promote peace in conflict areas

The United Nations is stepping up the testing of a new and extremely promising initiative. If successful, this initiative could significantly accelerate the peace process in hundreds of major and minor conflict hot spots, which are causing millions of people to fall into misery around the world.

According to a Financial Times report, the United Nations will use an artificial intelligence (AI) conversational tool to collect and analyze opinions of people in combat areas or directly affected. from conflicts to find out what they really want, what they need, thereby drawing on the factors that can ease tensions and promote peace there. This AI tool is fully accessible via smartphone and is expected to be released next year.

The technology was developed based on the idea of ​​the United Nations with the technical assistance from an AI startup, Remesh. It will act as an opinion collecting application in the form of 'chat rooms', which can manage online chats with up to 1,000 participants. Participants' thoughts will be analyzed in real time via polls as well as open questions to provide analytical data on a large scale.

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The UN believes that this tool can improve public participation in peace negotiations around the world. The UN system will create real-time conversations between people living in conflict areas, talking about what they want from a peace agreement. Participants will be invited to answer questions and polls right on their smartphones, ensuring no identity is revealed. There will be an integrated security system to issue a warning if there is manipulation of results from hackers.

Information collected will then be provided to UN mediators. To help those who cannot access the internet still freely express their views on peace negotiations, the United Nations is also developing a similar platform that works in the form of SMS.

According to UN estimates, up to two thirds of peace building initiatives do not lead to a permanent resolution. Online participation can improve the prospects of peaceful initiatives, building on the views of those who are most affected by conflict - elements that are often not obvious.