ASED and LSD were programs created (primarily funded) by the DOD in conjunction with Reuters media to create systems that can detect large scale social engineering and social deception targeted towards US citizens. Reuters is involved because they're the ones who created the database that the DODs and researchers AI systems would use to train on. The database primarily consists of social media posts where intentional deception was used often by propaganda bots.
My guess is the payments were for that data. This started in 2018 under the Trump administration and was progressively funded (near quarterly) up until it's termination date at the end of 2022 under the Biden Administration.