Pentagon Seeks Ai-generated Decoy Cellphone 'Personalities' to Fool Enemy Tracking

The goal is to mask "digital exhaust, the metadata automatically emitted by mobile phones, such as location and specific device IDs. Intelligence agencies, law enforcement, militaries and criminals have become adept at using this digital debris to locate users and analyze their behavior. "Accessing foreign mobile phone networks exposes individuals and organizations to surveillance and espionage threats, warned the DoD Small Business Innovation Research solicitation, which opens Sept.

23 and closes Oct. 21. "Adversaries can leverage this data to track daily routines, identify deviations indicating special events (e.g., VIP visits or mission preparation), and map sensitive facilities based on cell phone concentration or periods of inactivity. The solicitation envisions a "digital exhaust deception system in which AI "personas" generate cellphone signals that mimic the behavior of real people.

Each device should have a minimum of two personas, eventually four or more, weigh fewer than 2 pounds and have a battery life of up to 36 hours. Merely generating fake signals isn't enough. The device must "mimic realistic patterns of life to defeat automated network analysis, DoD said, ultimately defeating behavioral tracking by advanced AI.

Phase I involves creating a design concept and algorithms; Phase II will generate a prototype; Phase III delivers "fully integrated mission management software and hardened decoy box form factors (e.g., Wi-Fi router-sized team devices and puck-sized personal devices). The technology could also protect corporate assets. A capability to obscure cell phone metadata directly translates to protecting high-value corporate assets, personnel, and intellectual property from commercial espionage and tracking, the solicitation states.

Traffic analysis has long been an intelligence tool. In World War II, the U.S. Navy used it to derive intelligence on Japanese naval deployment. Japan used decoy radio signals in 1941 to convince U.S. analysts that its fleet was at home rather than steaming toward Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Today, police use software that traces a user's past movement for months.