Some good news for U.S. drone manufacturers

Happy Thursday! I’m Eva Dou, tech policy reporter, filling in for Cristiano Lima today. Send news tips to: eva.dou@washpost.com.

Below: The big, thorny legal question that will decide the future of AI. First: Domestic drone makers are cheering new U.S. curbs on foreign vendors.

Domestic drone makers bullish on sales after U.S. sets new curbs on foreign vendors

U.S. small drone makers are optimistic about their sales prospects after the annual defense policy bill, which passed last month, included curbs on the federal government purchasing foreign drones.

“We think the total addressable market now for us after last week has gone up at least four times,” Jeff Thompson, founder and CEO of the Utah-based drone maker Red Cat, told Tech 202.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2024 includes the American Security Drone Act, which prohibits the government from using federal funds to purchase drones made in China or certain other countries starting in December 2025, with the measure in force through December 2028. It also prohibits federal agencies from operating Chinese drones for that duration, unless they have an exemption.

It follows similar legislation in Florida against state agencies using foreign-made drones, which took effect last year.

Small drones are useful to government agencies in cases when it would be expensive or dangerous to send in workers on foot or by helicopter. These include firefighting, dam repairs, wildlife surveys and border patrols.

The laws have stirred some controversy, with some industry voices saying blanket prohibitions against China-made drones are overkill and leave government agencies and others without budget-friendly options.

But broadly speaking, U.S. drone makers say they expect to see a sales bump this year even though the new ban on federal purchases is not yet in effect.

“They’re giving them two years, which is plenty of warning,” Thompson said. “I don’t think a lot of people will wait that long to convert to made-in-U.S. drones.”

The fresh curbs are the latest measures. While these small flying robots are used as toys by average consumers, their ability to be used for aerial surveillance means officials consider them a technology that must be carefully managed.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials have been worried by China’s overwhelming dominance of the global consumer drone market. Shenzhen-based DJI, the world’s biggest drone maker, now holds a 70 percent market share.

The U.S. Army prohibited service members from using DJI drones back in 2017. In December 2020, the Commerce Department put DJI on its export control list, preventing U.S. companies from selling components to it without approval.

More recently, Ukrainian soldiers have been using swarms of small, cheap drones rigged with bombs. U.S. military officials say the successful experiment in Ukraine means small drones are likely to become an established part of warfare.

The Pentagon announced a “Replicator” program last year aimed at building thousands of low-cost drones in the United States within a year and a half.

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The big, thorny legal question that will decide the future of AI

When a person reads a New York Times article, then goes to a bar and repeats what it said, that’s not generally considered a copyright violation. But what about when an artificial intelligence system reads that same article, then uses it to help power a chatbot or search tool capable of summarizing or even regurgitating the article's contents?

Our colleagues Will Oremus and Elahe Izadi parse this thorny legal question at the heart of the lawsuit that the Times filed last week against OpenAI and Microsoft, which experts say has the potential to rattle the foundations of the booming AI industry.

The court will have to decide whether ChatGPT “training” on gargantuan data sets, including copyrighted material, constitutes “fair use” or whether it infringed on the rights of the Times and other media outlets, legal experts say.

One precedent was a lawsuit by an authors' guild against Google for scanning tens of millions of library books as part of its Google Books project, Will and Elahe report. Google argued that by displaying only “snippets” of the books online in response to searches, it was providing a fundamentally different service. A court ruled in Google’s favor in 2015.

FTC reaches settlement in case over hundreds of millions of illegal robocalls

The Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with voice over internet protocol (VoIP) provider XCast Labs on Tuesday over allegations that the company illegally facilitated hundreds of millions of illegal robocalls, the Hill reports.

As part of the settlement, XCast Labs agreed not to violate the Telemarketing Sales Rule in the future; to implement a screening process; and to end its relationship with firms that are not complying with telemarketing-related laws, according to the FTC.

“XCast was warned several times that illegal robocallers were using its services and did nothing,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

“Companies that turn a blind eye to illegal robocalling should expect to hear from the FTC,” Levine added.

The case was litigated by the Justice Department on behalf of the FTC.

DHS looks for input on cloud and machine-learning project

The Department of Homeland Security is looking for industry input by Friday for an advanced analytics platform for a machine-learning project, MeriTalk reports.

The project is “envisioned to be a multicloud, multi-tenant environment for testing new software and tools, and developing complex machine learning capabilities,” according to a request for information issued by the department.

The department’s Science and Technology Directorate is using Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform for the project through a contract with a third-party vendor that will expire in September 2024, and it is looking for a replacement vendor.

The analytics platform “will host experimentation in analyzing, correlating, and enriching data to prepare for and respond to threats. Lessons learned will be shared with partners in government, academia, and industry,” according to a fact sheet published last year.

The program is under development at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, an operational component of DHS.

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Domestic drone makers bullish on sales after U.S. sets new curbs on foreign vendors

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The big, thorny legal question that will decide the future of AI

FTC reaches settlement in case over hundreds of millions of illegal robocalls

DHS looks for input on cloud and machine-learning project

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