BIO
August Cole is an author exploring the future of conflict through fiction and other forms of “FICINT” [Fictional Intelligence] storytelling. His talks, short stories, and workshops have taken him from speaking at the Nobel Institute in Oslo to presenting on future warfare at SXSW Interactive to lecturing at West Point. With Peter W. Singer, he is the co-author of the best-seller “Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War” (2015) and “Burn In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution” (2020). He is a co-founder and a managing partner at Useful Fiction, which works at the center of narrative, foresight, and change management focused on defense and security.
August is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center on Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council; he directed the Council’s Art of Future Warfare Project from its inception in 2014 through 2017. He is also an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute working on AI and future warfare. A former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, August is a regular speaker to private sector, academic, and US and allied government audiences.
August is represented by John Taylor “Ike” Williams and Katherine Flynn of Calligraph.