D-Day: Online Training Simulations for Information Resilience

We propose D-DAY: Fostering Information Resilience via Simulation-based Training (D-DAY), an online, simulation-based training environment for techniques of information resilience ľ especially defense against foreign malign influence (FMI).ááThanks to the Internet and social media, the manipulation of our perception of the world is taking place on previously unimaginable scales of time, space and intentionality. The situation is complicated by the increasingly rapid evolution of technology for producing and disseminating information. The human brain is now the first line of defense in engagements with sophisticated adversaries.áDTRA needs a workforce aware of the evolving information environment, threat landscape, and options for mitigating actions. Current training products offer finite sets of player/adversary strategies, lacking a mechanism to steer training toward specific learning objectives. D-DAY will improve on this via large language models (LLMs) supporting an open-ended strategy space, enabling an engaging user experience and sophisticated learning objectives. D-DAY draws from a comprehensive playbook of disinformation tactics, structured as a knowledge graph, ensuring training can reach all corners of the strategy space. D-DAY will develop a formal planner to interact with the playbook to steer training simulations toward specific learning objectives.ááWe bring extensive experience with simulation-based education, via Mark Floodĺs and ProBankerĺs ongoing work; and with training for information resilience, via Rand Waltzmanĺs extensive research. This combination puts us in an excellent position, with both domain content and the online functionality, to deliver a fully featured simulation/gamification of the information resilience challenge.ááD-DAY Phase I will deliver a working, proof-of-concept online training environment putting the trainee in the role of a DTRA staffer engaged with foreign partners in activities with significant exposure to the information environment and FMI. D-DAY will help players hone skills in the dimensions of the OODA loop: Observing potential adversary actions; Orienting on how these attacks are perceived by the public; Deciding on a course of action; and Acting through denial of service, counter-messaging, emotional reassurance, etc.ááThe D-DAY environment will comprise a core game management engine interacting with players to provide game logic. Under the hood, an LLM will generate content and evaluate player responses, while a database will hold game/player state and any cached artifacts. We will seed the LLM with: (a) the Dark Arts Manipulation Playbook (a set of FMI recipes), and (b) a library of DTRA missions to support rich game scenarios. D-DAY will deliver a rich browser-based user interface, permitting ease of deployment and long-term integration with existing learning management systems. A management interface will support new scenario creation and monitoring of student progress through the game.