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The Cognitive Crucible

By: Information Professionals Association
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  • Summary

  • The Cognitive Crucible explores all aspects of our generational challenge: Cognitive Security. It is the only podcast dedicated to increasing interdisciplinary collaboration between information operations practitioners, scholars, and policy makers. Join the discussion forum each week with the Cognitive Crucible host, John Bicknell. Have a question or would like to suggest a topic go to: https://information-professionals.org/podcasts/cognitive-crucible.
    2023 Information Professionals Association
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Episodes
  • #192 Dr. Josh "Bugsy" Segal on the American Maginot Line

    #192 Dr. Josh "Bugsy" Segal on the American Maginot Line
    Jun 4 2024

    The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.

    During this episode, Dr. Josh “Bugsy” Segal discusses his ongoing concerns about the “American Maginot Line.” He is concerned that the United States is insufficiently and inappropriately funding the cognitive war that is bearing down on us. Moreover, the United States domestic political system hampers progress. Our gallop across the information landscape includes political hot button topics, sea stories, open source intelligence, and also some bright spots.

    Recording Date: 29 May 2024

    Resources:

    • Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned
      • #49 Matt Armstrong on the Smith-Mundt Act
      • #187 Randy Rosin on Reflexive Control
      • #129 Eliot Jardines on Open Source Intelligence
    • Deft9 Solutions
    • Colour Revolution
    • EU vs Disinformation
    • Disinformation Governance Board
    • Disinfo 2024 Conference
    • Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui
    • Has China Won?: The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy by Kishore Mahbubani
    • Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Era by Donald A. Barclay

    Link to full show notes and resources

    Guest Bio:

    Dr. Joshua “Bugsy” Segal is the Co-Founder & Vice President for Strategy and Innovation at Deft9 Solutions. A veteran of over 30 years in national security policy, strategy and operations, and intelligence, both military and civilian, Dr. Segal is an internationally recognized expert in arms control, countering foreign malign influence, and counter-WMD. Dr. Segal spent over a decade as a member of U.S. multilateral arms control delegations in Geneva, Vienna, and The Hague, including the negotiations to finalize the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention and establish the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. After leaving the federal government and then retiring from the military, Dr. Segal serves as an advisor to senior DoD leaders on operations in the information environment and teaches OSINT tradecraft.

    About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

    For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org.

    Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn.

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • #191 Jose Davis on Public Affairs Integration and Leveraging AI for Operations in the Information Environment

    #191 Jose Davis on Public Affairs Integration and Leveraging AI for Operations in the Information Environment
    May 21 2024
    The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, US Air Force Captain Jose Davis discusses his paper, which is entitled: "Leveraging AI for Operations in the Information Environment: 3 Demonstrations in Disinformation, Social Media, and Entropy." The paper focuses on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the realm of Operations in the Information Environment (OIE), particularly for the Air Force. The paper presents three case studies demonstrating how AI can positively impact OIE and advocates for direct AI research in this area. Additionally, he’ll recap an information campaign that US Air Forces in Europe conducted to assure Baltic NATO Allies, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Recording Date: 24 April 2024 Research Questions: Jose Davis suggests as interested student examine: What other common metrics can be developed or researched for assessing the Information Environment, tailor-made for the national security needs and useful for IO and PA operators?What are the practical outcomes in the Information Environment (a complex system) when entropy is influenced, pushed either higher or lower? e.g. Hypothetically, when high entropy is present, humans deploy simplifying heuristics, so this should help improve Key Leader Engagements’ (KLE) timing and improve KLE dossiers. Or with PA/IO, high entropy hypothetically may demand a simplified messaging campaign.In what other ways can AI be leveraged to combat nefarious AI use for disinformation?The ideas of watermarking or safeguarding content from manipulation from nefarious Generative AI are a form of immunization, advancing Inoculation Theory as a whole. What other preventative measures along the lines of immunization can be taken to combat disinformation? Resources: Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned #46 Pat Ryder on Public Affairs and Strategic Communications #174 Kara Masick on Assessment Insights from Program Evaluation #183 Julie Janson on Air Force IO Talent and Strategy Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence Universal adversarial perturbations by Seyed-Mohsen Moosavi-Dezfooli, Alhussein Fawzi, Omar Fawzi, and Pascal FrossardPre-trained Adversarial Perturbations by Yuanhao Ban, Yinpeng Dong Automating OIE with Large Language Models by Cpt Alexander Sferrella, Cpt Joseph Conger, and Maj Kara MasickClaude Shannon AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future by former Google technologist Kai-Fu Lee and science fiction writer Chen Qiufan. I’m a huge advocate of using story to educate. For those new to AI or wanting to understand AI’s societal impact, this is my go-to book. Written in a series of fictional short stories with in-depth essay analysis at the end of each, the book teaches AI while making it entertaining. A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman. I think every Information Warfare professional should know who Claude Shannon is and read his “magna carta” of the Information Age, The Mathematical Theory of Communication. My intellectual hero, this exceptional biography brings the man to life — a polymath, a tinkerer, an innovator.“Attention is all You Need” by Ashish Vaswani et al. This is the seminal paper advancing the Transformer architecture which made Generative AI like ChatGPT possible. Liken this paper to Einstein’s book on Relativity or Newton’s Principia. Information Theory: Structural Models for Qualitative Data by Klaus Krippendorff Link to full show notes and resources Guest Bio: Jose is a Public Affairs Officer for Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. He has over 14 years of experience in integrated communications, both in the public and private sectors. He is accredited in Public Relations and Military Communications through the Public Relations Society of America. In his current role, he ensures the strategic communication of accurate and timely information about the command’s 104-country area of operations. He played a pivotal role at NATO in combating misinformation before, during and after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He just finished a rigorous six-month fellowship at a DoD-sponsored AI Accelerator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gaining exposure to some of the brightest and best minds in AI and Machine Learning technologies. As part of his fellowship, Jose was required to apply his newly acquired AI foundational knowledge to produce a research paper addressing a problem or issue facing the U.S. Air Force. The paper is slated for publication in the U.S. Air Force’s Air and Space Operations Review journal. ...
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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • #190 Army Command and General Staff Information Advantage Scholars Symposium

    #190 Army Command and General Staff Information Advantage Scholars Symposium
    May 17 2024
    The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, we learn about the US Army’s Command and General Staff College Information Advantage Scholar Program. Two officers from the 2024 IA Scholar cohort–Army MAJs Vincent Michel and Josh Keller–present their research and also discuss their overall experience. Additionally, Cognitive Crucible listeners are invited to the Command and General Staff College Information Advantage Symposium on 22 May 2024. Recorded on: May 2, 2024 Research Questions: MAJ Michel suggests as interested student examine: What are the necessary steps a unit must take to isolate a prevalent actor within the narrative space?Are there additional factors that influence the narrative space and consolidation of gains? MAJ Keller suggests as interested student examine: Primary Research Question: How can Collateral Damage Estimation (CDE) adapt to accommodate nonlethal effects against satellite communication architecture?Secondary Research Question: How can CJCSI 3370.01 Target Development Standards accommodate entity-level target development for satellite communication architecture on orbit? What are the resulting impacts to intelligence and targeting professionals? Resources: Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned #166 John Agnello on Information Advantage YouTube Channel: Information Advantage Scholars USArmyCGSCCommand and General Staff College Information Advantage Symposium – May 22 | Command and General Staff College Foundation, Inc. (cgscfoundation.org) Army Space Vision Supporting Multi-domain OperationsTE Lawrence Army Doctrine Publication 3-13, Information Advantage Dangerous Narratives: Warfare, Strategy, Stagecraft by Maan, Clark, Steed, Drohan, Nesic, Holshek, Straub, Ronfeldt, and Arquilla The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why by Richard E. Nisbett The Wires of War: Technology and the Global Struggle for Power by Jacob Helberg The Battle Beyond: Fighting and Winning the Coming War in Space by Paul Szymanski and Jerry DrewIke Skelton Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) Digital Library Link to full show notes and resources Guest Bios: Guest #1: Vincent Michel, U.S. ArmyInformation Operations, Military Intelligence, Armor Thesis: The Other Side to the Story: Consolidation of Gains and the Narrative Space Education:2018, M.A. Criminal Justice, American Military University 2013, B.A. Criminology, University of New Mexico Past Assignments:Mission Command IO Project Officer, MXCDID, Futures Concept Center, AFC, Ft. Leavenworth, KS Recruiting Company Commander, Evansville, IN Future Assignment: IO Team Leader, 11th Cyber BN Guest #2: Joshua Keller, U.S. ArmySpace Operations, Field Artillery Thesis:ADAPTING TARGETING POLICY FOR NONLETHAL EFFECTS ON SATELLITE COMMUNICATION ARCHITECTUREEducation: 2012, M.A. Quantitative and Psychological Foundations, University of Iowa 2010, B.A. Psychology, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Past Assignments:Deputy OIC, SPCT #3, 1st Space BN, Ft Carson, CO Assistant Ops Officer, 1st Space BDE, Ft Carson, CO Future Assignment: 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) Space Operations Officer, Ft Liberty, NC About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn. Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
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    47 mins
Political Science Science
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Security for the mind.

There is so much great information here. This is the future of humanity.

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