Narrative Intelligence: Separate Signal from Noise

Speaker: Mr. Greg Griffith (EdgeTheory)

Date: 15 July 2021

Speaker Session Summary

SMA hosted a speaker session Mr. Greg Griffith (Chief Product Officer & Co-founder, EdgeTheory) as a part of its SMA IIJO Speaker Series.

EdgeTheory’s methodology and technology combines human analysis and artificial intelligence to help people understand the theories, conversations, and narratives that shape their world. Mr. Griffith emphasized that people have been having conversations since the beginning of time; it’s the mediums through which conversations happen that are what changes. Furthermore, he argued that conversation is either an actor’s biggest asset or a liability in achieving their objectives. For an actor to effectively use conversation, they must understand their chosen form of communication, understand who is being influenced, and potentially control the narratives around them. 

EdgeTheory’s approach has defensive and offensive capabilities, however, this presentation focused on the defensive application of EdgeTheory’s technology, Xenon. Xenon focuses on narrative intelligence or the study of how media narratives grow and spread. Xenon is focused on: a) stories in the media, b) how they affect national interests, and c) how manipulation of narratives is happening and by whom. Mr. Griffith concluded his presentation by stating that Xenon’s clients gave positive reviews of the service, highlighting time savings, appreciation that the software is agnostic and unbiased, and users felt that the software effectively cut through noise created by media.

Speaker Session Recording

This speaker session supported SMA’s Integrating Information in Joint Operations (IIJO) project. For additional speaker sessions and project publications, please visit the IIJO project page.