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Short abstract

Focusing on interaction rather than signalling, I ask how AI agents trained in different geopolitical imaginaries manage conflict and diversity. Can they model cooperation, dissent, and pluralism, or do they reproduce rivalry and fragmentation in emerging AI futures?

Long abstract

I propose to examine how AI agents interact as emerging actors in conflict, governance, and social cohesion, and whether these interactions reinforce rivalry or create new pathways for cooperation. Current debates on the “AI Cold War” focus primarily on state signalling, sovereignty, and strategic competition. Yet increasingly autonomous systems are already shaping mediation, public discourse, and decision-making in fragile and polarized contexts.

This intervention shifts attention to the relational dynamics among agents themselves. Drawing on my work in digital peacebuilding and deliberative technologies across Africa and other conflict-affected settings, I ask: when agents trained within different geopolitical imaginaries interact, do they escalate polarization, or do they converge toward cooperation or shared problem-solving? In real-world processes, the design of interaction spaces—how actors listen, signal intent, and manage disagreement—often shapes outcomes more than formal rules. The same may be true for AI.

I am particularly interested in how agents handle dissent, diverse perspectives, and uncertainty, and whether they reproduce dominant logics or enable more adaptive collective reasoning across difference. This includes examining how optimization goals, training data, and feedback loops influence trust, legitimacy, and inclusion. Practitioner experience points to how resilience can be bolstered, yet this lens remains largely absent from current AI governance debates.

Simulations are ideal spaces to test norms of cooperation, escalation, and plurality before they are embedded in real systems. This approach seeks to test how we can move beyond deterministic Cold War framings toward AI futures in which agents can support dialogue and conflict transformation.