We are excited to announce the seventh annual Recent Advancements in Artificial Intelligence for National Security (RAAINS) Workshop to be held at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, MA, USA from 17 – 20 November, 2025. 

About the Workshop

AI workshops, conferences, and publications over the past several years have served to raise awareness of the challenges, responsibilities, opportunities, and concerns in applying AI to U.S. national security. RAAINS is uniquely focused on the latest operationally relevant breakthroughs and emerging directions in AI that are of specific interest to the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. This workshop showcases both applied and theoretical innovations, and offers a rare opportunity to engage with technologists, operators, and mission stakeholders driving the national security AI frontier. The event provides a glimpse into exciting future directions that promise to have a profound impact on national security. 

RAAINS is only open to US citizens and, for some sessions, US permanent residents.  

2025 Theme: “AI at the Front Line”

This year’s theme, emphasizes operational, forward-deployed AI and AI-enabled capabilities that directly support real-world mission needs. We're particularly interested in submissions that showcase how advanced AI/ML techniques are enabling forward-edge operations, mission autonomy, and strategic advantage. 

Call for Content 

We invite recent, original, and impactful work developing or leveraging cutting-edge AI and AI-enabled capabilities for national security, across variety of disciplines, for in-person oral presentation or demonstration at our workshop. Talks are typically 20 minutes in duration, with 5 minutes for questions. 

We welcome submissions from academia, industry, and government, especially in (but not limited to) the following topic areas: 

• Generative AI and Agentic Systems (unclassified only)
• Robotics and Autonomy (up to Secret) 
• Trustworthy and Assured AI (up to TS/SCI) 
• Industry Technology Demonstrations and Lessons Learned (unclassified only) 
  • ​​​​​​​Please treat this as a conference presentation and not a sales/investment pitch. A focus on one technology or product is preferred. 

Submission Guidelines 

• Format: Abstract or summary of talk/demo. Maximum of 600 words (excluding references).
• Submission Deadline: 20 August, 2025 (23:59:59 Anywhere on Earth) 
• Submit via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=raains2025
• Acceptance Notifications: 19 September, 2025

Security Note 

ONLY UNCLASSIFIED MATERIALS ARE TO BE SUBMITTED VIA EASYCHAIR.  

If you wish to present CUI OR CLASSIFIED MATERIALS, please contact us at raains@ll.mit.edu. DO NOT INCLUDE SENSITIVE CONTENT IN YOUR EMAIL OR SUBMISSION.

Workshop Co-Chairs 

• Mr. Jaime Peña, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
• Dr. Hosea Siu, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Please contact raains@ll.mit.edu with any questions. 

2025 RAAINS Workshop website: https://llevents.ll.mit.edu/raains/

---

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

This material is based upon work supported by the Department of the Air Force under Air Force Contract No. FA8702-15-D-0001 or FA8702-25-D-B002. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Air Force.

© 2025 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Delivered to the U.S. Government with Unlimited Rights, as defined in DFARS Part 252.227-7013 or 7014 (Feb 2014). Notwithstanding any copyright notice, U.S. Government rights in this work are defined by DFARS 252.227-7013 or DFARS 252.227-7014 as detailed above. Use of this work other than as specifically authorized by the U.S. Government may violate any copyrights that exist in this work.