The AI, Security & Defense Forum (AISD 🤖 ∩ 🛡️) is an experimental platform for exploring the intersection of AI research and Security & Defense challenges. We consider Security & Defense in the 21st century to be an increasingly complex, multi-dimensional challenge--characterized by the blurring and permutation of front lines beyond traditional zones of conflict into diverse socioeconomic and geopolitical spheres. This new paradigm necessitates a new level of collaboration across Science, Technology, and Public Policy. Toward this goal, we are piloting a setting with invited guest presentations and reading discussions as a foundation for AIML practitioners and Security & Defense experts to learn from each other. Through periodic presentations of projects chosen across two spectrums, we aim to accelerate the convergence of methodologies, enabling more collaborative responses to diverse security challenges in the coming decade.
Participants will collectively learn to unpack domain complexities, connect the dots, and identify emerging opportunities:
🤖 AI/ML Practitioners
Learn to interpret the scale, modality, and dimensionality in the problem domains of Security & Defense.
🛡️ S&D Experts
Learn to differentiate AI/ML methods to broaden your toolbox for solution development.
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Series Topics
Spring 2024: General Survey
Fall 2024: Arctic Security
Spring 2025: ---
Fall 2025: Influence Operations
Spring 2026: Strategic Games & Simulations
Fall 2026: Space Security
To contribute content or nominate speakers, contact Olivia at owhouck@mit.edu and Phil at phil.tinn@sintef.no.
Fall 2025 Events
This series explores the actors, strategies, and technologies shaping contemporary Influence Operations (IOs) in the context of global instability and shifting power dynamics. It argues that over the past decade, international relations have seen a retreat from multilateralism and value-based diplomacy, replaced by a resurgence of pragmatic, interest-driven approaches that prioritize strategic influence and control over norms, cooperation, and territories.
While kinetic conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine War have re-emerged, there has been a parallel escalation in influence operations—campaigns designed to shape perceptions, manipulate information environments, and exert pressure without overt military engagement. These operations thrive in ambiguity and deniability, often blurring the lines between peace and conflict.
This series aims to unpack these developments and contextualize Influence Operations through the lenses of:
- Institutions & normative power: how rules, norms, and legitimacy are contested and reshaped
- Critical infrastructure: as both targets and tools of influence
- Proxy networks: informal and state-linked actors as vectors of influence
- Artificial Intelligence: as a force multiplier accelerating and scaling influence campaigns
- Grassroots: the role of civil society, activists, and micro-influencers
Schedule
09 Oct LLM-Consensus: Multi-Agent Debates for Misinformation Detection
with Kumud Lakara (University of Oxford; JPMorgan Chase)
16 Oct From Moscow to Beijing: Russian propaganda and disinformation in Chinese Media
with Patrycja Krzyśpiak (NASK National Research Institute, Poland)
23 Oct Characterizing Knowledge Manipulation in a Russian Wikipedia Fork
with Mykola Trokhymovych (Pompeu Fabra University)
28 Oct Bots of Occupation: Russian Influence Operations on Telegram
with Yuliia Dukach (OpenMinds)
04 Nov Misinformation on WhatsApp: Insights from a large data donation program
with Kiran Garimelllla (Rutgers University)
13 Nov Strategic Communications in the Russo-Ukrainian War
with Per-Erik Nilsson (Swedish Defense Research Agency)
-- Nov Emerging Legal Frameworks for Countering Disinformation Operations
with Tetiana Avdieieva (Digital Security Lab, Ukraine)
04 Dec Topics on Cyber-Geopolitics
with Kevin Limonier (Paris 8 University; GEODE)
-- Dec Operationalizing the DISARM Data Framework for Election Integrity Monitoring
with Olaf Steenfadt (German Media Registry)
-- Dec Foreign Information Manipulation & Interference (FIMI) Threats
with Fulvia Menin (The Diplomatic Service of the European Union)
-- Dec Topics on Multi-Agent AI in Coordinated Activities
with Stefano Albrecht (Autonomous Agents Research Group)
Fall 2024 Events
A special series dedicated to Arctic Security. Applying a multi-lens perspective of theory-practice, scientific foundations, and technology enablers, we intend to provide a rich coverage on each of the following dimensions:
- Institutions, Doctrines & Governance
- Climate Drivers
- Information Environment & Domain Awareness
- Capital & Proxy Activities
- Strategic Decision-Making
- Asymmetric Operations
Schedule
02 Oct Pipelines, Cyber Ops, and Disinfo: Hybrid Warfare in the Arctic
with Gabriella Gricius (NAADSN, Colorado State University) [Video]
03 Oct Empowering NATO’s Technological Edge and Security & Defense Science
with John-Mikal Størdal (NATO STO, SM '92) [Video]
09 Oct Polar Geopolitics is Heating Up - What's the Role of Technology?
with Abbie Tingstad (U.S. Coast Guard Academy, SB '04)
16 Oct The Origins of Svalbard security, 1940-1955
with Alina Bykova (Stanford University) [Video]
29 Oct Arctic Sea Ice Monitoring Network
with Ben Evans (MIT Lincoln Laboratory)
14 Nov Unlocking the Arctic: Geophysics in Security, Geopolitics & Resource Exploration
with Madeline Lee (SINTEF)
20 Nov Sea Ice Geoengineering: Between Climate Security and Environmental Justice
with Romain Chuffart (The Arctic Institute)
Spring 2024 Events
A broad survey across the topics of information science, emerging capabilities of LLMs, strategic planning & design, and front lines of the Russian-Ukrainian War:
20 Mar Trend Extraction & Analysis with LLM and Knowledge Graph
with Tom Soru (Serendipity.ai) [Video]
10 Apr Learning Effective Policies for Human-Centric Multi-Agent Systems
with Athul Paul Jacob (MIT CSAIL) [Video]
17 Apr Battlefield Information Advantage in Ukraine
with Evan Platt (Zero Line, SM '20) [Classified Session]
08 May Mathematical Discoveries from Program Search with LLMs
with Bernardino Romera-Parades (Google DeepMind) [Video]
29 May Co-design of Complex Systems
with Giole Zardini (MIT CEE, IDSS) [Video]
05 Jun Stackelberg Games with Side Information
with Keegan Harris (CMU) [Video]
19 Jun Surrogate Temporal Network Generation: Methods and Applications
with Antonio Longa (University of Trento) [Video]
26 Jun Information Warfare & Psychological Resilience Against Manipulation
with Jon Roozenbeek (King's College London) [Video]
Organizers
Phil Tinn is a research scientist in the Software Engineering, Safety & Security group at the Norwegian applied research foundation, SINTEF, where he investigates the applications of graph, agentic, and neuro-symbolic methods in the fields of security, logistics, and bioinformatics. Phil completed his B.A. at UC Berkeley and Sciences Po Paris, focusing on the arts and politics. He also holds an M.Sc. in Computer Science from UT Austin and an MCP in Transportation from MIT.
Olivia W. Houck is a PhD candidate in the HTC program at MIT, where she explores the intersection of the built environment, diplomacy, and geopolitics during the Cold War and in NATO’s emerging operating environments. She holds a B.A. in Art History from the College of William and Mary, an M.A. in Architectural History from the University of Virginia, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Small States Studies from the University of Iceland.
Contributing
We welcome individuals across research, public, and private organizations to join our effort. Some of our topics of interest are:
AI/ML
- AI Explainability, Reasoning, Planning & Instructibility
- Neural & Symbolic Method Synthesis
- Graph-based & Topological Representation Learning
- Multi-agent Learning
- Human-AI Teaming
- Data Interoperability, Curation & Synthesis
- Robustness: Model Safety & Reliability
Security & Defense
- Hybrid Warfare (e.g. cognitive, informational, cyber, etc.)
- Supply Chain & Critical Infrastructure Protection
- The Arctic and Space (e.g. domain awareness, governance, etc.)
- Forecasting & Scenario Planning
- Wargaming
About
The AISD Forum is a collaborative initiative developed with generous support from the MIT Alumni Association (Norway, France & Germany) and SINTEF (through basic research funding from the Research Council of Norway). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SINTEF Foundation and MIT.
For specific questions and proposals, contact Phil at phil.tinn@sintef.no.
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