One of the positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is now occupied by a bot created using artificial intelligence technologies. The new employee is responsible for public relations, namely, commenting on consular information for the press.
The bot is the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for consular affairs, Victoria Shi. The prototype for the creation of a robot spokeswoman was the singer Rosalie Nombre.
“My name symbolizes our main goal – the victory of Ukraine, and my last name – the artificial intelligence that created me. My work will be to convey to the public operational and verified information of the consular department of the MFA of Ukraine. I will inform journalists of news about the work of consuls on the protection of rights and interests of Ukrainian citizens abroad, response to incidents or emergency situations and other news”, – this was the first address to the public of the spokeswoman for consular affairs.
From now on, Victoria’s video messages will be published on the resources and social networks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. They will also be added to the materials of the diplomatic agency sent to journalists.
“The use of a digital person generated by artificial intelligence for consular commenting is primarily a saving of time and resources of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Real diplomats will be able to be more efficient and focus on other tasks of providing assistance to citizens. The creation of a digital consular representative is part of a broader strategy for the systematic introduction of advanced technologies with using artificial intelligence in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Diplomacy has always been the last to innovate in the world. Ukrainian diplomacy is now strengthening its capabilities and making a technological leap that no diplomatic service has made so far in the world,” the head of the ministry noted Dmytro Kuleba.
To avoid fakes and clones of Victoria Shi, all MFA videos with the participation of a bot contain a QR code. If users follow the link encrypted in the code, they end up on the page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where the speech of the bot is duplicated in text format.
The ministry emphasized that artificial intelligence will not be a complete replacement for the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the bot will only complement the work area related to public relations.
It will be recalled that Oleg Nikolenko’s term of service as an official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently ended. After that, the ministry held a competition for the vacant position and elected a new spokesman. He is currently undergoing special inspections. This is a mandatory procedure before starting work in the department.
