By YS Research Coordinator, Comi Nguyen
Interculturalists may already be familiar with the TOPOI Model, a communication framework developed by Dr. Edwin Hoffman in the early 2000s to foster more effective interaction across cultural boundaries. As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, so do the conversations around intercultural bias and the risk of reinforcing stereotypes through AI tools. This brings forward a growing need to embed intercultural sensitivity and awareness into AI systems. In this post, we are pleased to introduce TOPOI GPT, a groundbreaking AI bot developed by Stephan Ruppert in collaboration with Edwin Hoffman, Arjan Verdooren, Alexander Frame, and the AI Working Group of SIETAR Germany: Eva Röttgers and Sabine Wagner.
What is the TOPOI Model?
In the early 2000s, Dr. Hoffman developed the TOPOI Model to address the complexities of managing intercultural communication.The acronym TOPOI (Greek: plural of place) represents the five places or areas in communication where differences of various kinds may occur: Tongue refers to each person's verbal and non-verbal language; Order, to everyone’s view and logic; Persons, to the identities and roles of the persons involved and the relationship between them; Organisation, to the situational, organisational, and societal context of the interaction; and Intentions, to the motives, needs, emotions, values, and spirituality of those involved.
Source: Hoffman, E. (2025, February). Inclusive communication and the TOPOI-model [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.33199.04007
10 TOPOI Principles for Inclusive Communication and Competence
1. Cultures don’t meet, people do
- Delabel: You meet a unique person in a specific context, not a label, not a culture or other label.
- Each person fundamentally and individually processes the cultural offerings in their life, in interaction with their unique personality, social affiliations, and life story.
2. Muticollectivity, multiculturality, and multiple identities of each person
- A person belongs to many social groups (collectives), each characterized by a certain culture, and from which they can derive a collective, social identity allied to a feeling of belonging and loyalty.
3. Diversity is broad, layered, multidimensional, and power-related
- Categories of difference are layered and not only cultural. Differences can also be social, interpersonal, biological, economic, juridical, or psychological.
- Each category of difference implies inequality and power dynamics.
4. Inclusive thinking: Recognised equality (commonalities) and recognized diversity(collective and individual differences)
- Humanizing ‘otherness’: "The others" are people like us: not 'strangers'; not ‘exotically different'.
- In each context, people share commonalities (identities, interests, needs) while differing from each other. Inclusive thinking and acting are about simultaneously recognizing these commonalities (recognized equality) and differences (recognized diversity).
5. Active pluralism: Universal human rights and dialogue
- Beyond cultural and moral monism and beyond cultural and moral relativism is active pluralism, which stands for non-negotiable fundamental values of universal human rights and dialogue.
6. Communication is a circular process
- In communication, participants mutually influence each other, and there is influence from social representations: The current and historical, collectively shared and created common images, perceptions, knowledge, norms, and the historical and current experiences in a collective.
Hence, three fundamental reflections in interaction with others:
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- What is my share?
- What is the share of the other?
- What is the possible influence of social representations?
- Intentions and effects of one’s communication can differ. Work with the effects of your communication (not with your intentions).
7. Communication is a quest and an adventure
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- Awareness and acceptance that in communication there always remains an amount of uncertainty and not-knowing how the situation is, who the other is, and how you and the other will react.
- Being prepared for unexpected differences (see TOPOI) and the assumption of good-will help to prevent reproaching the other person or yourself.
8. Assumption of goodwill: Behind each behavior, there are positive intentions
- Do not immediately jump to negative conclusions about a person. Everyone has good reasons for their behavior, for what they do or say. Try to find out and recognize this positive intention.
9. Being decisive in communication is an attitude of attention, respect, openness, and engagement
- From this attitude, be true to who you are and have trust in yourself.
10. TOPOI: The five areas in communication where differences and misunderstandings arise, as mentioned previously.
- Possible differences and misunderstandings in communication arise in the TOPOI areas:
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- Tongue (verbal/nonverbal language)
- Order (view and logic)
- Persons (identities, roles, and relations)
- Organisation (organizational and societal contexts)
- Intentions (motives, needs, emotions, values, spirituality).
How to use TOPOI GPT?
The newly created TOPOI-Bot is based on the TOPOI Model of Edwin Hoffman and developed by Stephan Ruppert together with Arjan Verdooren, Alexander Frame, Edwin Hoffman, and the AI working group of SIETAR Germany: Eva Röttgers, Sabine Wagner. The link can be found at https://chatgpt.com/g/g-XPHuOqn9d-topoi-gpt and added as an extension of Chat GPT.
Before using the Bot, you should familiarize yourself with the TOPOI MODEL. You can find more background information about the model in Edwin Hoffman’s article Inclusive Communication and the TOPOI-model:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388673962. More elaborated and detailed in the book of Edwin Hoffman & Arjan Verdooren: Diversity Competence. Cultures don’t meet, people do.
Alternatively, you can simply ask the Bot about Inclusive communication and the TOPOI-model using the following instructions:
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Step 1: Ask the bot to inform you about Inclusive Communication and the TOPOI-model.
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Step 2: After you’ve informed yourself about Inclusive Communication and the TOPOI-model, you describe your case in detail and formulate a learning question.
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Step 3: The Bot will ask questions for clarification and to understand the background better. Usually, these questions are already a good reflection for you.
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Step 4: You answer the questions you can / want to answer or say, “Please continue”.
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Step 5: The Bot will explain the whole case with its own words based on your descriptions and answers. You can give feedback if the description is not correct.
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Step 6: Using the TOPOI Model, the Bot develops a reflection, hypotheses about the possible causes of misunderstandings and blind spots.
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Step 7: You say whether you agree with this reflection, which makes most sense for you. You can also just say “All” or “Please continue”.
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Step 8: The Bot proposes at least 3 potential interventions based on the TOPOI model.
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Step 9: Ask the bot for further, more specific suggestions or clarification.
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After this, you can continue the conversation and ask the Bot more detailed questions.
Attention: Please be aware of some specifics of a bot, which is based on a Large Language Model (LLM):
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See the interaction with the bot as a conversation: you can tell and ask the bot anything you want: a clarification, summary, simplification, additions.
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The answers are always different, and if you try the same case several times, you will get different responses. This is because different TOPOI hypotheses and interventions are possible.
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The Bot does not always strictly follow the process. If the Bot deviates from the process, just remind the bot of the missing steps or simply ask it to "strictly follow the instructions."
Instructions for the user to submit the case study
The case study is a description of the course of a difficult conversation in which the user, who submits the case study, feels that cultural or religious differences or misunderstandings play a role. As much as possible, try to describe:
- Where and when the conversation takes place
- Who the persons involved are
- What they say and do,
- What issue or problem is at stake
If applicable: describe what is done (acts) by persons (including yourself) objectively, factually, and without interpretation; what is said as literally as possible, and what the interpretations and feelings are of what is done and said.
- You may also describe a case study of a conversation that you find difficult because of possible cultural or religious differences you may face. In that case, describe any relevant previous history and what difficulties, differences you expect to encounter.
Don't forget to formulate your learning question, for example:
- What went wrong in this conversation/situation, and what could I have done differently?
- How can I handle this situation so that the others and I feel comfortable (again)?
- What can I do so that ... this or that ... doesn't happen again?
- How can I solve this dilemma, this problem?
- Did I act well in this situation? Please explain why.
- I have to or I am going to ...; what should I pay attention to or take into account?
When describing someone else's case, also formulate a learning question, for example:
- What went wrong in this conversation, and what could the people involved - or person(s) X(y) - have done better, or what could they do next time in a similar situation?
- What differences and misunderstandings play a role in this conversation, and how could the people involved - or person(s) X(y) - deal with these differences and misunderstandings?
- Why is person X so reluctant in this case, and how could person Y handle this situation better?
- How could person X or team X resolve this conflict?
We invite you to explore TOPOI GPT as your companion in fostering inclusive communication. Let it support you in navigating complex interpersonal dynamics with openness, reflection, and respect, because in the end, cultures don’t meet, people do.
