Statecraft in the Age of AI

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Artificial intelligence, or AI, will impact key policy and strategy decisions for nations around the world. We will begin by examining the foundations of this technology. Students will learn about the underlying techniques that make modern AI systems so powerful as well as the ways in which those systems can fail. We will explore the major challenges and opportunities of promoting cooperation between governments, academia, and the private sector. We will then focus on current and potential applications of AI and their implications for geopolitics, including autonomous weapons, intelligence collection and analysis, cybersecurity, disinformation, and technology competition. We will make use of forecasting techniques and open-source methods to consider a range of scenarios for near- and medium-term growth in AI capabilities and the ways in which this technology can be misused. We will also focus on the key levers and policy tools that nations rely on to shape the trajectory of AI, with implications for military strategy and debates around human rights, ethics, and global governance. No technical background is required for this class. Through papers, workshops, simulations, and policy memos, students will learn about the basic concepts and techniques at the heart of modern AI and wrestle with the core policy debates that are driving today’s geopolitics.