US Marines acquire ‘cognitive’ tool that tracks adversary narratives in real time

Accrete has received a sole-source contract from the U.S. Marine Corps to provide the service with its Argus for Cognitive Advantage artificial intelligence technology. Under the contract, Accrete will license its Expert AI Agents to the U.S. Marine Corps to give the Armed Forces a “cognitive advantage” by providing tools designed to help analysts process information and make informed decisions. “Cognitive advantage is a warfighting requirement, not a support function, and this award reflects the Marine Corps’ clear recognition of that,” said Bill Wall, CEO of Accrete AI Government. The contract demonstrates “the trust” Accrete has built with other U.S. defense agencies following previous deployments of Argus with the Department of Defense. Now it’s bound for the U.S. Marine Corps. Giving the U.S. military a strategic advantage Argus for Cognitive Advantage is designed to track, analyze, and visualize narrative development across open-source information environments. According to Accrete, the system can process information from the open web, social media, broadcast media, messaging platforms, and foreign-language outlets. The system runs on Accrete’s Knowledge Engine platform, which converts “the institutional knowledge of experienced practitioners into specialized AI agents,” according to a press release. These agents identify information relevant to particular use-case-specific signals and produce reports intended to reduce the amount of time required for decision-making. Argus also includes video analysis capabilities. According to the press release, this is what sets Argus apart. The technology can transcribe and translate speech, identify objects and scene content, and infer location cues from video. It can reduce hours of video to minutes of analysis while making information contained in clips searchable and attributable. Other capabilities include narrative engines and stance detection for tracking how conversations “evolve and resonate,” as well as predictive simulation. An Audience Simulation Agent can segment audiences and simulate how individual groups could react to a message before its release. This feature, in particular, reduces weeks of work into a single workflow. Argus also provides automated assessments intended to measure mission outcomes and includes Argus Chat, which allows analysts to query data using natural language. The platform provides real-time translation and transcription across 243 languages and can analyze information from sources including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Telegram, Weibo, and VKontakte. The company said the system is designed so that its AI-generated inferences can be traced back to their original sources. The U.S. Marine Corps is integrating AI “Accrete is proud to expand its reach within the Department of War by supporting the U.S. Marine Corps,” added the company. Accrete first deployed Argus with the Department of Defense in 2022. The company subsequently received a multimillion-dollar U.S. Army contract in 2024 to further develop the technology for Army information operations. Argus for Cognitive Advantage was also selected for a 2025 AFWERX STRATFI award aimed at transitioning the technology from prototype to operational use. “The most valuable context in any institution is the know-how trapped in the heads of its best people,” said Prashant Bhuyan, founder, CEO, and chairman of Accrete. “Argus for Cognitive Advantage is one of the most sophisticated applications of the Knowledge Engine platform, and Accrete is proud to extend it to the Marine Corps as it counters adversaries operating against the United States every day through digital channels.” Founded in 2017, New York-based Accrete develops cognitive infrastructure for government and enterprise customers. Accrete AI Government, its federal subsidiary, is based in Alexandria, Virginia. Get the latest in engineering, tech, space & science - delivered daily to your inbox.Originally from LA, Maria Mocerino has been published in Business Insider, The Irish Examiner, The Rogue Mag, Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, and now Interesting Engineering.