The DARPA solicitation for the Active Social Engineering Defense program, drawing attention from various user comments, reflects a significant shift in how technology intersects with social behaviors and governmental responsibilities. The discussions highlight skepticism about the allocation of substantial funding to media organizations like Thomson Reuters, questioning the purpose and efficacy of such grants. Commenters express concerns over societal reliance on digital platforms, suggesting that government efforts indicate a panic regarding public perception and misinformation. Furthermore, there is a sense that DARPA's mission has become more about engineering existing technologies rather than pioneering fundamental research, particularly in the fields of AI and machine learning, which some believe has been neglected in favor of more straightforward engineering tasks.