Securing Our Autonomy: How AI Fuels Cognitive Warfare – and How We Can Fight Back

June 3, 2025 | 10:30 am ET / 7:30 am PT

In a side event at the SCSP AI Expo, experts on the front lines of policy, industry, and neuroscience unpacked how AI is being weaponized for psychological and influence operations — and how we can build resilience across society.

As AI’s ability to operate in the global information ecosystem scales, malicious actors stand poised to exploit these technologies for precision-targeted psychological operations.

At SCSP’s AI Expo, IST Senior Analyst for Technology and Society Gabrielle Tran moderated a panel examining AI’s impact on thought and behavior, and how the tech ecosystem can safeguard cognitive resilience against emerging threats. Panelists included RAND Senior Policy Researcher Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Jessica Brandt, Center for Disruptive Technologies and Future Warfare in the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University Director Dr. James Giordano, and OpenAI Intelligence and Investigations team Principal Investigator Ben Nimmo.

Panelists

Gabrielle Tran

Senior Associate for Technology and Society