Information technologies and applications have profoundly impacted the global social order as individuals and groups race to dominate influential narratives and exert their will upon others. Military leaders have witnessed the pervasive impact of information and recently declared it as the 7^th Joint Warfighting Function. Emerging doctrine addresses the deliberate integration with other joint functions (Command and Control, Intelligence, Fires, Movement and Maneuver, Protection, and Sustainment) to influence relevant actor perceptions, behavior, action or inaction, and human and automated decision making. Information, and the advanced technologies that allow it to be generated, shared, and interpreted, is driving research strategies in the Army Research Lab. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) essential research area was recently organized to speed the insertion of autonomous elements into battle systems to strengthen conventional deterrence.  The ARL AI/ML vision is to develop artificially intelligent agents (heterogeneous & distributed) that rapidly learn, adapt, reason & act in contested, austere & congested environments. In the newly created ARL Social Computing Team, our efforts address these AI/ML topics: 1) Adaptive algorithms to reduce cognitive load, 2) Cyber-threat detection, 3) Information agent-delivered decisional guidance, 4) Shared mission planning, and 5) Social influence mechanisms and thresholds. This presentation will introduce the goals and technical gaps of the ARL AI/ML program and demonstrate how Social Computing programs will address portions of those areas. 

Biography
Dr. Elizabeth Bowman is a Senior Operations Research Analyst with the Army Research Laboratory, Computational Information Sciences Directorate. She has a PhD from the University of Maryland and leads a research program addressing text and imagery data analytics, with a focus on social computing.  Her research is internationally recognized through her active research in NATO and TTCP partnerships.  She leads national and international groups focused on extracting information from multiple sources to rapidly form knowledge of operational threats in unfamiliar environments.