Article 2 December 10, 2021

Experts on the Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence and Challenges to International Psychological Security

Report by Evgeny Pashentsev

Edition of the International Center for Social and Political Studies and Consulting December 2021, Moscow: LLC «SAM Polygraphist», 2021. – 62 pp. ISBN 978-5-00166-528-1

Funding: The reported study was funded by RFBR and VASS, project number N 21-514-92001.

The full report available here: https://www.academia.edu/62873193/Experts_on_the_Malicious_Use_of_Artificial_Intelligence_and_Challenges_to_International_Psychological_Security

The present publication is a result of the implementation of the research project titled “Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence and Challenges to Psychological Security in Northeast Asia,” funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS).

The responses received from a targeted survey of nineteen experts from ten countries and their subsequent analysis aim to highlight the range of the most serious threats to international psychological security (IPS) through malicious use of artificial intelligence (MUAI) and determine how dangerous these threats are, which measures should be used to neutralize them, and what the prospects for international cooperation in this area are.

This publication attempts to determine whether MUAI will increase the threat level of IPS by 2030. The publication pays special attention to the situation in Northeast Asia (NEA), where the practice of MUAI is based on a combination of a high level of development of AI technologies in leading countries and a complex of acute disagreements in the region.

Evgeny N. PASHENTSEV

Prof. Evgeny Pashentsev is a Leading Researcher at the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and the Director of the International Center for Social and Political Studies and Consulting (Moscow). He is a coordinator of the European-Russian Communication Management Network (EU-RU-CM Network), the Russian-Latin American Strategic Studies Association, and the International Research Group on Threats to International Psychological Security through Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence (Research MUAI). He is a partner of the European Association for Viewers Interests in Brussels, a member of the International Advisory Board of Comunicar (Spain), and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Political Marketing (USA). Prof. Pashentsev has authored, co-authored, and edited 37 books and more than 200 academic articles published in Russian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Serbian, Vietnamese, and Bulgarian. He has presented his papers at more than 180 international conferences and seminars over the last 10 years in 24 countries. The areas of his current research include strategic communication and malicious use of AI.

Introduction by Evgeny Pashentsev 5

Questions and Answers by the Experts 9

1. What threats to psychological security caused by the malicious use of artificial intelligence do you consider the most relevant for the modern world? Why? 9

2. How much does the malicious use of artificial intelligence increase the level of threat to international psychological security today? 13

3. How much will the malicious use of artificial intelligence increase the level of threat to international psychological security by 2030? 14

4. What measures (political, legal, technical or other) do you consider to be important to neutralize the threat to international psychological security caused by the malicious use of artificial intelligence? 14

5. How important is international cooperation in successfully countering the malicious use of artificial intelligence? On what international platforms (and why) is this cooperation the most effective? What are the existing obstacles to this cooperation? 19

6. Which of the threats to international psychological security caused by the malicious use of artificial intelligence do you consider the most relevant for your country? 22

7. Are any measures (political, legal, technical or other) being taken in your country to overcome threats to psychological security caused by the malicious use of artificial intelligence? What are these measures? 24

8. Which of the threats to international psychological security caused by the malicious use of artificial intelligence do you consider the most relevant for Northeast Asia? 26

9. How much does the malicious use of artificial intelligence increase the level of threat to international psychological security in Northeast Asia today? 29

10. How much will the malicious use of artificial intelligence increase the level of threat to international psychological security in Northeast Asia by 2030? 30

11. In which countries of Northeast Asia (no more than three) have the threats to international psychological security caused by the malicious use of artificial intelligence reached the highest level? Why? 30

12. How well is the public in Northeast Asia aware of the threats to international psychological security caused by the malicious use of artificial intelligence? 32

13. How do you assess the degree of readiness of state bodies of the countries of Northeast Asia to counter threats to international psychological security caused by the malicious use of artificial intelligence? 33

The Questionnaire for Experts “Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence and Challenges to Psychological Security” 36

Expert Review by Evgeny Pashentsev 38

About the Experts 53

Introduction

Evgeny Pashentsev

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, despite their high significance for social development, raise threats to international psychological security (IPS) to a new level. There is a growing danger of AI being used to destabilize economies, political situations, and international relations through targeted, high-tech, psychological impacts on people’s consciousness. Meanwhile, crisis phenomena are rapidly increasing in frequency, number, and severity worldwide.

There is no need to explain here why, in 2020, the Doomsday Clock was set to 100 seconds to midnight for the first time in history and remains unchanged in 2021 (Defcon Level Warning System, 2021). Nor is there a need to explain why the UN Secretary General is serving as a megaphone for scientists, warning bluntly that failure to slow global warming will lead to more costly disasters and more human suffering in the years ahead (Dennis, 2021). And there is no need to explain why the growth in the world’s billionaires’ fortunes from 8 to 13 trillion dollars in the crisis year of 2020 (Dolan, Wang & Peterson-Withorn, 2021)—against the backdrop of record economic decline in recent decades, hundreds of millions of newly unemployed people, and, according to the UN, the growth in the number of hungry people in the world from 690 million in 2019 (Kretchmer, 2020) to 811 million in 2020 (World Health Organization, 2021)—does not contribute to solving these and other acute problems of our time.

Economic problems, the degradation of democratic institutions, social polarization, internal political and interstate conflicts against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all under the conditions of rapid AI development, create extremely favorable ground for the malicious use of AI (MUAI). MUAI is an intentional antisocial action, whether in explicit or implicit form. Antisocial circles (from individual criminals and criminal organizations to corrupt elements in government to financial and commercial structures to the media to terrorists and neo-fascists) are already increasingly taking advantage of this situation, favorable to their purposes.

The manipulation of the public consciousness is especially destructive in historical moments of crisis. The inhumanity of fascism became apparent after the death of 50 million in the flames of the Second World War. However, the technology of manipulating the public consciousness, with the appropriate funding from certain corporate structures, ensured Hitler’s victory in the Reichstag elections in 1933—a distant year, but highly instructive for those alive today. It is hardly by accident that, today, the governments and parliamentarians of the USA, China, Russia, India, EU countries, and other states and associations to varying degrees and in different ways show growing concern about the threat of high-tech disinformation on the Internet and the role of leading media platforms that actively use AI technologies. The question is clear: can humanity collectively find a way out of an increasingly difficult situation with a quantitatively and, increasingly, qualitatively higher level of manipulation of the public consciousness?

In 2019, evidence of organized social media manipulation campaigns was found. These took place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017 (CloudFlare, 2020). In each country, at least one political party or government agency had used social media to shape public attitudes domestically (Ibidem). Bots today have convincingly authentic online profiles and advanced conversational skills, and can appear to be legitimate users embedded in human networks. Some automated accounts are also partially managed by humans, using profiles known as “cyborgs” or “sock puppets” (Samuels & Akhtar, 2019).

The problem of the relationship between MUAI and IPS was first systemically raised by the author in a speech at a round table at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in November 2018 (ICSPSC, 2018; Pashentsev, 2018). The topic was then developed in several publications, of both single authorship and co-authorship with colleagues (Averkin, Bazarkina, Pantserev & Pashentsev, 2019; Bazarkina, Dam, Pashentsev, Phan & Matiashova, 2021; Bazarkina & Pashentsev, 2019 and 2020; Pashentsev, 2019a, b and c; Pashentsev, 2020a and b; Pashentsev, 2021; Pashentsev & Bazarkina, 2021). The author considers it necessary, especially in modern international circumstances and taking into account the topic of this study, to focus on threats to IPS through MUAI, which, in real life, is in constant feedback and a position of mutual influence with the psychological security (PS) problem at the individual, group, and national levels.

As noted by the author in a recent study, new threats to agenda-setting and political stability are arising from the advantages of offensive and defensive psychological operations using AI. These advantages are increasingly associated with quantitative and qualitative departures from the traditional mechanisms of producing, delivering, and managing information; new possibilities for having psychological impacts on people; and the waging of psychological warfare. In particular, these advantages may include: (1) the volume of information that can be generated, (2) the speed at which information can be generated and distributed, (3) the believability of information, (4) the strength of the intellectual and emotional impacts that can be created, (5) the analytical data-processing capabilities that are available, (6) the use of predictive analytics resources based on AI, (7) the methods of persuasion that can be used, and (8) new capabilities for integration in the decision-making process. Based on a qualitative and rather approximate assessment of the data available from primary and secondary open access sources, the author draws the preliminary conclusion that advantages 1 and 2 have already been achieved, whereas advantages 3–8 are in the developmental stage at the operational level (Pashentsev, 2021, p. 143).

It should be noted that MUAI threats are growing in Northeast Asia (NEA). The region has not developed its own security system that would cover all countries of the region and serve all interests. Negative psychological impacts associated with various aspects of national and international development are increasingly affecting the sociopolitical situation and interstate relations in NEA. Recently, the pace of development of AI technologies there, especially in China, Japan, and South Korea, has sharply increased, which, despite the progressiveness of the achievement, also poses new challenges to IPS in the region, which require a timely response from state and non-state and national and international structures and institutions.

Meanwhile, the current systemic analysis of the MUAI and IPS problem within the framework of international cooperation leaves much to be desired and is fragmentary within the framework of MUAI research—not counting the efforts of the international group of specialists founded in 2019 to study the threats to IPS through MUAI, the Research MUAI group. The members of this group have published over 40 articles in indexed international academic journals on the topic of this study (Pashentsev, 2019c).

The above circumstances prompted the author to conduct a targeted expert survey as part of the implementation of the research project “Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence and Challenges to Psychological Security in Northeast Asia,” funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS). The assessments given by nineteen experts from ten countries (1) obtained as a result of the expert survey and their subsequent analysis aim to highlight the most serious threats to IPS through MUAI and determine how dangerous these threats are to society, which measures should be taken to neutralize them, and what the prospects for international cooperation in NEA are. This survey attempts to determine whether MUAI will increase the level of threat to IPS by 2030. The experts paid special attention to the situation in NEA, where the practice of MUAI is based on a combination of a high level of development of AI technologies in leading countries and a complex of acute disagreements in the region.

The structure of this publication is designed in such a way that the reader can first get acquainted with the experts’ answers to the questions posed, and then with their analysis.

The author expresses his gratitude to the RFBR, which has made this research possible; the experts, who have devoted their valuable time to preparing answers to the questionnaire; and the author’s colleagues in the research project “Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence and Challenges to Psychological Security in Northeast Asia” Prof. Darya Bazarkina, leading researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), Dr. Nieet Dam, lecturer at HSE University (Moscow), Yuri Kolotaev and Ekaterina Mikhalevich, doctoral students at Saint Petersburg State University, and master’s degree student Darya Matiashova for their help in forming an international knowledge base of experts on the topic of the survey. The author is also grateful to the authors’ colleagues at the International Center for Social and Political Studies and Consulting (ICSPSC), which allowed this publication to come to fruition.

November 29th 2021

(1) Fifteen experts from Belarus, Cuba, France, Poland, Romania, Russia, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Vietnam have agreed to have their answers published.

References

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Bazarkina, D., Dam, V., Pashentsev, E., Phan, K., & Matiashova, D. (2021). The Political Situation in the Northeast Asia and Threats of Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges to Psychological Security. Sotsialno-Gumanitarniye Znaniya (Social And Humanitarian Knowledge), 4, 212-234. doi: 10.34823/SGZ.2021.4.51655

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About the Experts

Vian BAKIR

Prof. Vian Bakir is Professor in Journalism and Political Communication at Bangor University, UK. She is an expert on the impact of the digital age on strategic political communication, dataveillance, and disinformation. She has advised UK national research councils (Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) on their major investments into digital citizenship, AI, ethics, and governance; and the European Commission on its Horizon 2020 work program on digital disinformation. She has reviewed >150 grant applications on technology and society for such councils. She has been awarded multiple UK research council grants on data governance and transparency (from the Economic & Social Research Council, AHRC, EPSRC, Innovate UK, and Arts Councils). Her books include: Intelligence Elites and Public Accountability: Relationships of Influence with Civil Society (2018); Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror (2016); Sousveillance, Media and Strategic Political Communication: Iraq, USA, UK (2010) and Communication in the Age of Suspicion (2007). She has recently advised the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on AI (2020), the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Electoral Transparency (2019-20), the UK Parliament’s Fake News Inquiry (2017-19), and the Parliament of Victoria (Australia) Electoral Matters Committee on social media and political campaigning. She has recently worked with the UK’s National Union of Journalists to prepare guidance for journalists seeking to avoid surveillance by the security state; and she has advised business on public attitudes towards emergent technology.

Raynel BATISTA TELLEZ

Principal Professor and Chair of Lectures at National Cybersecurity Engineering Program, Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas (UCI), Cuba. He is a member of UCI Artificial Intelligence Lab and the National Association of Pattern Recognition. He was Chief Editor of Futuro Publishing House, editorial board member of academic journals and collaborator of International Sociology journal. He holds an AMBA Certificate at International Management Institute (IMI), India. He participated in several international projects Chilenische-Deutsch Jugend Kulturtreffen (Germany), Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Zürich (Switzerland), Caracas Social Work (Venezuela), Social Network Analysis (Cuba). His main research areas are Big Data Analytics, Cognitive Automation, Data driven innovation, and social network and social media analysis. His current PhD research is based on sociocybernetics and anthropology, assuming cross-cultural competency to understand the influence of artificial intelligence on the global distribution of power and regional balance.

Robert BORKOWSKI

Holds a PhD. Associate professor at Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, Faculty of Security Sciences, Krakow, Poland. Scholarship holder of the US Department of State. Member of the Scientific Council of the Center for Research on Terrorism in Warsaw, Poland. He deals with the issues of terrorism and counter[1]terrorism prevention, as well as religious fundamentalism and psychological aspects of terrorism. Rescue is another area of his research and activity. Author of the books Postmodern terrorism – a study of political anthropology, Foundations of Europe, Civilization – Technology – Ecology, editor of twelve collaborative books. Decorated by the President of Poland with the Medal of Sacrifice and Courage and the Silver Cross of Merit for his contribution to rescue.

Anna BYCHKOVA

Anna Bychkova holds a PhD in Law. Associate Professor. Psychologist. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Journalism. Head of the Scientific Research Department of the Irkutsk Institute (branch) All-Russian State University of Justice (Russian Law Academy of the Ministry of Justice of Russia). Expert of the Federal Service of the Russian Federation for Supervision in the Field of Communications, Information Technologies, and Mass Communications. Deputy editor of the Prologue: Law Journal. Author and co-author of publications on the problems of using artificial intelligence in countering, predicting, preventing and investigation crime, and also how crime is adopting technologies with elements of artificial intelligence. She deals with issues of legal evaluation of acts committed using such technologies. Conducts research on the development of artificial intelligence algorithms in the media. Deals with the problems of digital addiction; content and communication risks in social networks. Her current research area includes artificial intelligence in legal practices (Legal Tech, LawTech, Regtech); digitalization of the educational process; implementation of blockchain technology; the use of big data in criminology.

Matthew CROSSTON

Dr. Matthew Crosston is an acclaimed author and educator who consults with governments and academic institutions on a range of issues covering education innovation, human rights conflicts, resource dilemmas, intelligence, and cyber. He serves under the Provost at Bowie State University just outside of Washington DC as its first-ever Director of Academic Transformation. Additionally, he serves as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Israel, Senior Advisor for the Research Institute for European and American Studies in Athens, Greece, Senior Fellow at the China Eurasia Council for Political and Strategic Research in Nanjing, China, Executive Vice Chairman of ModernDiplomacy.eu, was the first American invited to conduct a political analysis column for the Russian International Affairs Council in Moscow, Russia, and is on the Senior Advisory Board of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. He has published top-tier research that has made required readings lists at US STRATCOM, CYBERCOM, the Army and Naval War Colleges, Mossad, the US Department of State, the Ministry of State Security in China, and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Overall, his work has been translated into Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, French, Indonesian, Hebrew, Spanish, Turkish, Farsi, Greek, and Uzbek. He has a BA from Colgate University, MA from the University of London, PhD from Brown University, and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto.

Svetlana S. GOROKHOVA

Associate Professor S. S. Gorokhova holds a PhD in Law, is a lecturer of legal disciplines at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (Moscow), and at the same time is a leading researcher at the Center for Legal Research and Expertise of the Faculty of Law of the Financial University. She is a member of the Expert Council on control issues in the field of state (municipal) finance and other resources under the State Duma Committee on Control and Order of the Russian Federation. Svetlana Gorokhova is a member of the editorial board of the Russian peer review journal Scientific Notes of Young Researchers. As a part of the research team, she has been participating in fundamental scientific research on the state task of the Financial University on the topic “Theory of legal regulation of artificial intelligence, robots, and robotics in the Russian Federation” for three years (2019-2021). She is the author/co-author of more than 100 academic publications published in Russian, English, and Spanish, including 10 monographs, 15 textbooks and manuals for higher educational institutions, and more than 70 scientific articles. A significant part of the published research is devoted to issues of national (including psychological) security, as well as issues of legal regulation of relations complicated by the element of artificial intelligence.

Nguyen Quoc HUNG

He holds a PhD in economic sciences and is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Russian Strategy in Asia at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 40 academic publications, including publications on the topic of the digital economy and the development of scientific and technological cooperation between Russia and Vietnam. He is one of the executors of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) grant “Problems of implementation and expected effects of the Free Trade Agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” His research interests are: Russian– Vietnamese economic relations, trade and economic relations of Russia with the countries of Indochina and ASEAN, and integration processes.

Pavel KARASEV

He holds a PhD in political sciences and is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Information Security Issues at the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, Lomonosov Moscow State University. His research interests encompass the political dimension of ICT use in international relations, varying from issues of cyber warfare to problems of terminology to the filtration of objectionable content and application of international law to cyberspace. He has authored and co-authored reports and research articles on issues of information security, cybersecurity, and international information security. He has been a participant and speaker at major conferences and summits on cybersecurity and information security in Russia, Germany, India, and the USA.

Andrew MCSTAY

Prof. Andrew McStay is Professor of Digital Life at Bangor University, UK. He is a world-leading scholar in how emotion-sensing technologies are transforming society, with his work regularly featured in international media, and his major books translated into Chinese and Indonesian. His 8 monographs include, most recently, Emotional AI: The Rise of Empathic Media (2018) which examines the impact of technologies that make use of data about affective and emotional life. Director of The Emotional AI Lab, current projects include cross-cultural social analysis of emotional AI in UK and Japan. Non-academic work includes IEEE membership (P7000/7014) and ongoing advisory roles for start-ups, NGOs, and policy bodies. He has also appeared and made submissions to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on the right to privacy in the digital age, the UK House of Lords AI Inquiry and the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport Inquiry on emotion, news, and reality media.

Alexander RAIKOV

Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, State advisor of the Russian Federation of the 3rd class, Winner of the Russian government award in the field of Science and Technology, General Director of the New Strategies Agency (NSA) Ltd. Professor of the State Technological University (Russia), Leading researcher of the Institute of Control Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Senior Researcher of the National Center of Excellence in the field of Digital Economy of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Chief researcher of the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the International Research Group on Threats to International Psychological Security through Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence (Research MUAI). Prior to 1993, Prof. A. Raikov developed automated control systems for the Russian Government. In 1993 – 1999, he was the head of the Information[1]Analytical Department of the Presidential Administration and coordinator of the Situation Center of the Russian President. Since 1999, he and his team have completed about 60 projects for: the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Education of Russia, Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the Government of the city of Moscow, the Republic of Kazakhstan, etc. Prof. Raikov developed strategies for improving the quality of health care and education in the regions and scientific cities of Russia. Author of more than 350 research papers, 6 monographs, 9 patents in the field of strategic management, socio-economic development, information and analytical technologies, AI, situation centers, decision support systems, and network expertise.

Marina RESHETNIKOVA

Marina S. Reshetnikova is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economic and Mathematic Modelling at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), holds a PhD, and is a researcher in economic sciences and an innovation expert. She has been a member of the following research associations: Triple Helix Association (THA), The Free Economic Society of Russia, Centre d’Etudes en Macroéconomie et Finance Internationale (CEMAFI). She is also a deputy editor-in-chief of RUDN Journal of Economics. Marina is the author of over 30 research articles and a participant of more than 20 international academic conferences and seminars in Russia, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Italy, Greece. Her main research interests include the problems of ensuring sustainable development within the uncertainty of the global economy, innovation, and the problem of AI proliferation and especially its malicious use.

Vitali ROMANOVSKI

Vitali currently holds the position of analyst with the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research. He has substantive field experience in the Middle East, including an advisory role with an intergovernmental program on military-technical cooperation in the UAE and an analytical post with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, Baghdad. Regular participant of the Chatham House events on information security and counter-terrorism in the EU, Middle East, and Russia. Member of the International Studies Association (ISA) and East European Studies Association (CEEISA). His research interest includes intelligence studies, psychological warfare, artificial intelligence, and information security.

Sergey A. SEBEKIN

He defended his PhD thesis “The Genesis and Development of Strategies to Deter Cyber Threats in the United States, China and Russia (1990s – 2014)” in 2020. He is a lecturer at the Department of Political Science, History and Regional Studies of Irkutsk State University. He is a Fellow of the Oxford Russian Foundation 2014– 2015. In 2016, he completed an internship at Hokkaido University as part of the Russian–Japanese program Russia–Japan East 3 (RJE 3), Sapporo, Japan. In 2020–2021, he completed an internship at the Moscow-based the Russian Center for Policy Studies (PIR Center) under the program “New Technologies and International Security”. His research interests are: issues of international cybersecurity, theories of cyber warfare, artificial intelligence and the future of international relations, and the impact of high technologies on international relations. He has authored 30 academic articles, analytical notes and papers on various aspects of international cybersecurity, published by such journals and organizations operating in the field of international relations as Russia in Global Affairs, Russian International Affairs Council, the Valdai International Discussion Club, the PIR Center, and the Primakov Center for Foreign Policy Cooperation.

Pierre-Emmanuel THOMANN

Pierre-Emmanuel Thomann is a doctor in geopolitics. His doctorate was obtained at the French Institute of Geopolitics (IFG, University Paris 8) in 2014. The thematics of his expertise cover Franco-German relations, pan-European and global geopolitical issues, geopolitical cartography, and the geopolitical dimension of artificial intelligence issues. He teaches at Lyon 3 Jean Moulin University, Lyon, France. He is president / founder of an international association Eurocontinent based in Brussels (website www.eurocontinent.eu) whose objective is to broaden the debates about the European project on geopolitical issues. Pierre-Emmanuel Thomann is a member of the International Research Group on Threats to International Psychological Security through Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence (Research MUAI). Pierre-Emmanuel regularly publishes articles in academic journals and specialized magazines on diplomatic and geopolitical issues, and contributes regularly to international conferences and seminars on international affairs organized by UNO, OSCE, and UNESCO, at international and national conferences in France, Italy, Russia, Uzbekistan, and other countries.

Marius VACARELU

Marius Vacarelu holds a PhD and is a researcher in political sciences and a legal expert. He graduated from the Law Faculty in Bucharest. Marius Vacarelu teaches public law in the National School of Political Science and Public Administration since 2005, he is a member of the committee, which edits the Romanian magazine GeoPolitica, and is a head of “The Geopolitics of the East Association” which runs the website www.geopoliticaestului.ro. Marius Vacarelu is a member of the International Research Group on Threats to International Psychological Security through Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence (Research MUAI). He is an author/co[1]author/coordinator of 22 books and more than 200 academic articles including the articles/book chapters on the role of AI in international relations and political processes. Marius Vacarelu is a frequent speaker on Romanian television on geopolitics issues. He is a blogger for Romania’s most important journal Adevarul. Marius has presented papers and published articles in Russia, Czech Republic, France, Poland, UK and the US.