Drones at the Border
What to know: Criminal cartels—and perhaps other actors—are now deploying drones at the southern U.S. border. Experts say the threat is serious.
The TPPF take: Drones require immediate FAA action.
“Drones are increasingly violating American airspace,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore. “We know that tens of thousands of drone sightings on our southern border are connected with the Mexican drug and human trafficking cartels. But dozens of other drone sightings at sensitive military installations suggest hostile nation-state actors, most likely China.”
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AI
What to know: Following a teenager’s suicide after conversations with an artificial intelligence chatbot, the Florida Legislature is considering new rules for AI.
The TPPF take: We can’t leave kids alone with AI.
“We should not be surprised that children are drawn to these systems. AI chatbots are patient, responsive, and seemingly understanding,” says TPPF’s Hannah Bruck. “But what happens when children turn to artificial intelligence instead of parents for guidance, validation, or comfort? A child can express their anger or resentment toward parents to a chatbot and receive sympathy without context, limits, or moral grounding. Unlike a parent, an AI chatbot does not help a child work through conflict in a healthy way. It simply responds.”
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Sanity Returns
What to know: The University of Texas at San Antonio is dissolving its departments devoted to race and gender, in another setback for DEI.
The TPPF take: Good riddance to bad policy.
“Viewing the world through the DEI ideology requires pronouncing virtually everything that humans have accomplished since time began as the result of white supremacy, racism or colonialism,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “It rejects the principles of individual freedom and autonomy, science, research, advancement, inquiry and discovery. Their worldview is a dark place where everything humans value is proclaimed to be bad and everything human decency condemns as bad is said to be good.”