Latvia-built AI society helps NATO train against hybrid threats

NATO teams from 13 countries are using a Latvian-developed artificial intelligence simulation of society to practise responding to hybrid threats in an exercise in Latvia, LSM reported.

The first NATO strategic communications exercise, called SYNESIS 2026, uses the simulated society to model how situations develop and measure public reactions. Teams practise countering different scenarios while trying to prevent panic and keep society functioning.

Hybrid threats include not only disinformation but also cyberattacks, sabotage, political influence and attacks on critical infrastructure, the report said.

Jānis Sārts, director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, told Latvian Television that information campaigns can quickly follow incidents. He cited the arrival of 19 drones in Poland, after which a major campaign in the information space began four hours later and sought to blame Ukraine rather than Russia.

Sārts said the simulation allows teams to train in real time and see whether they can maintain public confidence or whether it shifts to the opposing side. Some teams were performing well, he said, while others still had work to do.

He added that Ukrainian colleagues, who face hybrid warfare every day, had rated the exercise model highly. The aim is not only to respond to individual incidents, but also to make such attacks seem costly and ineffective to an adversary.