Sponsor: Coastal Los Angeles Section Chapter,C16
Speaker: Rand Walltzman

Date: 27 Jan 2025
Time: 06:00 PM to 07:00 PM
Cost:
Location:
Reservations: IEEE
Summary:
Cognitive warfare involves the weaponization of public opinion to influence policy and destabilize institutions, with emotional manipulation playing a key role. Virtual Reality Environments (VREs), such as Meta’s Metaverse, present new opportunities for such
manipulation due to their immersive features like presence and embodiment, which intensify emotional engagement. These environments enable the exploitation of emotions for influence, as demonstrated in psychological therapies and experiments where VREs elicited powerful emotional responses, including fear and self-transcendence.

Adversaries can use VREs to manipulate public sentiment, foster violence, or distort perceptions, making users vulnerable to deceptive narratives. The integration of advanced biometric tracking within VREs enhances this threat, allowing real-time profiling and emotional exploitation on an unprecedented scale. To counter these risks, it is critical to develop defensive strategies, including cataloging manipulation techniques, advancing detection capabilities, and creating specialized organizational structures to support a strong cognitive defense. While VREs offer potential benefits, proactive measures are essential to mitigate their misuse for harmful cognitive
attacks.

Bio: Rand Walltzman is an adjunct senior information scientist at the RAND Corporation where he recently led a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project on the next generation of manipulation, influence and deception in immersive environments. Waltzman previously served as acting chief technology officer at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute in Washington DC and as the DARPA program manager responsible for the Social Media in Strategic Communications program. His areas of expertise include bot detection, influence operations, disinformation, machine learning, and digital communications.