What happened
RAND published its scenario-based gaming study (13 October 2026) of AI-fueled hybrid influence campaigns, running seven games from June 2025 to April 2026 on its Infinite Potential platform using the 'Day After AGI' methodology. Players acting as National Security Council Principals Committee members confronted a Chinese information-operations campaign that exploited domestic grievances about AI job displacement and safety before escalating to physical attacks on AI infrastructure. The report's topline warns such campaigns 'might foster domestic unrest, collapse public trust, and lead to violence faster than the United States can respond,' with key findings that the U.S. response toolkit may be inadequate, that 'trust in AI is a national security variable,' and that attribution and federal-state coordination are slow/gapped. It recommends treating public trust as a national security priority, building rapid joint-attribution and federal-state coordination, and strengthening allied coordination and precrisis partnerships with AI developers.
Why it matters
It reframes AI safety as a hybrid-threat and public-trust problem for national security boards, with concrete preparedness recommendations that translate directly into scenario-planning and crisis-response playbooks.
Action needed
Brief the crisis-management and national-security-facing team on the findings, and build the recommended attribution/federal-state coordination and public-trust measures into AI incident planning.