Podcasts about DJI

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update, we have four stories for you this week: the FCC fines eight alleged DJI front companies for stonewalling investigators, an SFPD Skydio drone feed exposed live on the open internet for six months, BRINC raises 125 million dollars, and Duke Health drones now fly defibrillators to real calls. Let's get to it.First up, the FCC has proposed 25,000 dollar fines against eight companies it suspects of selling rebranded DJI hardware in the US. These brands include Skyrover and Xtra Technology. Here's the important nuance: these fines aren't for the hardware itself, at least not yet. They're for straight up ignoring the FCC's official Letters of Inquiry sent back in May, asking whether these companies market equipment tied to DJI's spot on the Covered List. None of them responded. All eight now have until July 20 to finally answer, and if they don't, the FCC has already given itself the authority to revoke existing equipment authorizations entirely, which would mean import and marketing bans. Next, the San Francisco Police Department left live video from five of its Skydio surveillance drones exposed on the open internet for about six months. Two outside security researchers stumbled onto the feed last month, reported it, and it came down within days, but by then they had archived roughly 48 hours of real operations. We're talking color and thermal video, live GPS tracking, and even the names and emails of six SFPD drone pilots. The cause was a Skydio sharing link created with no password and a one year expiration, later picked up by a public archive of scraped web addresses. The footage showed full missions from takeoff to landing, including officers filming through apartment windows and a drone tailing two guys who turned out to just be going to play basketball. That's a direct contradiction of SFPD's own policy, which requires minimizing incidental recording. This is entirely American made Skydio hardware. No “foreign adversary” needed, just a misconfigured link.Speaking of drones responding to 911 calls, BRINC just raised 125 million dollars in a round led by Motorola Solutions, pushing its total funding past a quarter billion. The goal: a drone as first responder on the roof of every one of the roughly 80,000 police and fire stations in the country. Motorola invested in BRINC back in April 2025, and that relationship lets an officer launch a BRINC drone from a button on a Motorola radio, or have one dispatched automatically the second a 911 call comes in. BRINC says revenue tripled last year and contract signings are up roughly four times.On a similar topic, Duke Health researchers are now flying drones with defibrillators to real 911 calls in Clemmons, North Carolina. When a 911 dispatcher takes a cardiac arrest call, the drone launches alongside the ambulance, cruises at 200 feet, drops to 100 feet over the scene, and winches the AED down while the dispatcher coaches the bystander by phone on how to use it. The math here is brutal. An AED used within two to three minutes of collapse pushes survival toward 70 percent, but ambulances typically take eight to ten minutes to arrive. That gap is the perfect opportunity for a drone. This program actually delivered its first real-world AED back in November 2025, and it's now running as standard procedure on live calls. If the results hold up, this could become normal across the country.And the conversation continues on Post flight where we discuss these stories uncensored in the Premium Community, link is in the description. We'll see you for the live Q&A on Monday. Have a good weekend!https://dronexl.co/2026/07/14/duke-health-drone-aed-911-calls/https://dronexl.co/2026/07/14/fcc-fines-dji-front-companies-25000/https://dronexl.co/2026/07/14/brinc-motorola-911-drone-police/https://dronexl.co/2026/07/13/sfpd-skydio-drone-feed-live-internet/

ARRI is selling its global rental business – we break down the management buy-out backed by H2 Equity Partners and what it means for rental-exclusive cameras and lenses. Also this week: the FCC fines alleged DJI "front companies", Sony announces the RX10 V after nine years plus the LYTIA L910 LOFIC smartphone sensor, firmware news for the VENICE 2 and GFX ETERNA 55, new gear from SmallRig, Tilta, Blackmagic Design, and MOFAGE, LALAL.AI's new Lynx speech denoising model, sun tracking coming to Artemis and Cadrage – and a look beyond the hard cut on MZed.   This episode is sponsored by Hollyland: [INSERT SPONSOR URL] ► Learn more: http://cined.co/nImvmn Chapters & Articles Mentioned in This Episode: (00:00) Intro (01:25) ARRI Sells Its Global Rental Business – Management Buy-Out Backed by H2 Equity Partners https://www.cined.com/arri-sells-its-global-rental-business-management-buy-out-backed-by-h2-equity-partners/ (09:14) P+S Technik HEXAMO Mount Brings Leitz HEKTOR Primes to ARRI ALEXA https://www.cined.com/ps-technik-hexamo-mount-brings-leitz-hektor-primes-to-arri-alexa/ (10:38) DJI 'Front Companies' Fined by the FCC – A Selective Crackdown That Only Hurts Filmmakers https://www.cined.com/dji-front-companies-fined-by-the-fcc-a-selective-crackdown-that-only-hurts-filmmakers/ (17:33) SmallRig Split Filter Kits for DJI Osmo Pocket 4P Announced – Snap-On Dual Design, Stackable Optics, Adjustable VND https://www.cined.com/smallrig-split-filter-kits-for-dji-osmo-pocket-4p-announced-snap-on-dual-design-stackable-optics-adjustable-vnd/ (20:14) Sony LYTIA L910 Announced – LOFIC Structure, 100 dB Single-Exposure Dynamic Range, and 4K 60p HDR https://www.cined.com/sony-lytia-l910-announced-lofic-structure-100-db-single-exposure-dynamic-range-and-4k-60p-hdr/ (25:48) Sony RX10 V Announced – 24-600mm ZEISS Zoom, AI Recognition AF, and 4K 120p Video https://www.cined.com/sony-rx10-v-announced-24-600mm-zeiss-zoom-ai-recognition-af-and-4k-120p-video/ (32:53) Sponsor: Hollyland ► Learn more: http://cined.co/nImvmn (33:45) Sony VENICE 2 Firmware V5.00 Released – Signature Preset Look, 4K 47.95p 12G SDI Output, CNA-2 LAN Support https://www.cined.com/sony-venice-2-firmware-v5-00-released-signature-preset-look-4k-47-95p-12g-sdi-output-cna-2-lan-support/ (36:56) FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55 Firmware 1.10 Released – Roadmap Promises Automatic ND Control, LANC Support, and MXF Playback https://www.cined.com/fujifilm-gfx-eterna-55-firmware-1-10-released-roadmap-promises-automatic-nd-control-lanc-support-and-mxf-playback/ (40:32) Cadrage Studio Officially Released – Pre-Production Suite Exits Early Access with Subscription Pricing https://www.cined.com/cadrage-studio-officially-released-pre-production-suite-exits-early-access-with-subscription-pricing/ (43:18) Artemis and Cadrage Add Sun Tracking – Director's Viewfinder Apps Converge on Sun-Position Pre-Vis https://www.cined.com/artemis-and-cadrage-add-sun-tracking-directors-viewfinder-apps-converge-on-sun-position-pre-vis/ (45:39) Blackmagic UltraStudio Express 3G Announced – USB4 Capture and Playback, 3G-SDI and HDMI https://www.cined.com/blackmagic-ultrastudio-express-3g-announced-usb4-capture-and-playback-3g-sdi-and-hdmi/ (48:44) Tilta Universal Cooling System Announced – Thermoelectric Plate, Three Cooling Modes, and USB-C or Magnetic Battery Power https://www.cined.com/tilta-universal-cooling-system-announced-thermoelectric-plate-three-cooling-modes-and-usb-c-or-magnetic-battery-power/ (52:04) LALAL.AI Lynx Announced – Targets Noise in Production Dialogue https://www.cined.com/lalal-ai-lynx-announced-targets-noise-in-production-dialogue/ (56:16) MOFAGE POCO II Drop-In Filter Mount Now Available to Order – New EF Mount, Increased Clearance, and More https://www.cined.com/mofage-poco-ii-drop-in-filter-mount-now-available-to-order-new-ef-mount-increased-clearance-and-more/ (59:00) Beyond the Cut – Dissolves, Morphs, and Other Transitions https://www.cined.com/beyond-the-cut-dissolves-morphs-and-other-transitions/ Any questions or comments? Write us at podcast@cined.com. Don't forget to subscribe to CineD Focus Check on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

We're back at Casa Verde for Episode 152 with a wide-ranging, candid conversation that takes a few unexpected turns. We kick things off with a check-in on the Tour de France—analyzing Tadej Pogačar's mountain dominance, high-speed descending errors in the peloton, and the brutal realities of pro road racing. We also dive into the shifting action camera market, breaking down GoPro's financial struggles and $20M emergency financing, why DJI and Insta360 own the space, and the privacy implications of Meta smart glasses.The core of this episode is a transparent, real-talk update from Kevin following a frustrating neighborhood crash caused by an unmarked roadwork sign sitting right in the middle of a local bike path. What started as an urgent care visit for nine stitches in his thumb and a massive hip hematoma led to an ER CT scan—and an unexpected, incidental discovery of an asymptomatic mass on his kidney. Kevin shares his unfiltered perspective on the diagnosis, why he considers the bike crash a weird blessing in disguise, and his absolute refusal to stop riding bikes.This entire experience has lit a fire under our local advocacy efforts. With federal bicycle infrastructure funds being redirected away from critical long-distance projects like the Northeast Texas Trail (NETT) and the Great American Rail-Trail, grassroots community organization matters more than ever. We lay out the vision for the September 19th Midnight Massacre weekend: bringing North Texas cycling organizations (DORBA, FWIMBA, Big Pig, and more) together under one roof to rally for better local infrastructure and rider safety.To wrap things up on a lighter note, Chef Brad breaks down the culinary madness of his latest 9-course rye whiskey pairing dinner—featuring chilled sweet corn and peach soup, 53-day dry-aged Wagyu, and horchata tres leches—before diving into the everyday headaches of DIY car repair and pool filter battles.Support Local Advocacy: Whether you ride gravel, road, or MTB, get involved with your local clubs and trail organizations. We want to see representatives from across North Texas out with us this September!ShiftLess Podcast: Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your audio.Leave a comment below with your thoughts on action cam setups, your local trail infrastructure, or just to share your support. Stay safe out there, look ahead on the trail, and go ride your bike!00:00 Hot Open And Tour Talk01:23 Tour Crashes And Inexperience03:50 GoPro In Trouble05:08 Upgrade Cycles And Sensors08:52 Used Gear Pricing Reality13:48 Why Film Everything16:42 Social Apps And Chopped Unk18:35 Midnight Massacre Community Plan20:52 Funding Cuts Hit Trails28:09 Neighborhood Ride Crash Story35:13 Construction Hazards On Bike Lanes38:27 Bike Paths and Culture39:16 Crash and Urgent Care43:14 Hematoma and ER Trip48:53 Kidney Mass Discovery52:32 Next Steps and Insurance01:03:06 Whiskey Dinner Breakdown01:12:36 Pool Problems and Florida Pools01:16:46 Compression Shorts and Advocacy01:18:28 Cycling Hate and Closing

The FCC will crack down on an action camera from DJI, but NOT on a plan to flood the Earth with light pollution from space mirrors. OpenAI keeps digging deeper into lawsuits, and now Apple is taking them to court. AI data centers are SURGING in power use, but a few areas are pushing back. SK Hynix expects the RAM crisis will get worse next year, as Samsung posts higher profit guidance after breaking records this year. Chinese courts allow for heirs to inherit game accounts. NVIDIA wants us to remember how much we used to like them, and thinks trading cards will win us back. And we have to chat about this FCC filing for the new Tensor G6 going into the Pixel 11. Let's get our tech week started off RIGHT! -- Show Notes and Links https://somegadgetguy.com/b/4ej Support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu Find out more at https://talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-c117ce for 40% off for 4 months, and support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy.

In this episode, Jeff Brines and Charlie Sponsel explore the fascinating history and rapid rise of DJI, the Chinese tech giant known for drones and now e-bikes under the Avinox name. They analyze the cultural, geopolitical, and industrial factors that have shaped DJI's success and its implications for the cycling industry. Jeff and Charlie explore the rapid advancements in e-bike technology, the strategic moves of industry giants like DJI, and the evolving regulatory landscape. They analyze how these changes could reshape the future of the bike industry over the next five years.Chapters00:00 Introduction to the BS Podcast and DJI06:05 DJI's Early Struggles and Breakthroughs11:50 The Rise of DJI and Market Dynamics17:58 The Geopolitical Context of DJI's Growth45:45 The Impact of Economic Policies on Subsistence Farming51:32 Shenzhen as China's Silicon Valley57:05 Perceptions of Chinese Manufacturing01:02:44 The Importance of Urban Agglomeration01:09:40 Collectivism vs Individualism in Chinese Society01:17:42 Speculations on DJI's Corporate Structure and How Avinox Fits In01:23:21 The Competitive Landscape of the E-Bike Market01:29:10 The Future of Amflow: A Proof of Concept?01:39:10 The Gearbox Revolution in E-Bikes01:52:20 The Future of E-Bike Technology and Regulations02:05:07 The Future of E-Bikes and Innovations02:12:21 The Role of Major Players in E-Bike Technology02:18:11 Navigating E-Bike Regulations and Trail Access02:35:25 The Impact of DJI on the Bike Industry

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update, have three stories for you this week: the FBI seizes over 600 drones at World Cup venues, DJI releases M400 Parachute, and Boom Supersonic offers a $100,000 prize for a Mach 1 RC airplane. Let's get to it.First up, the FBI has seized more than 600 drones flying in restricted airspace around FIFA World Cup 2026 venues. This is a massive number, and confiscations have been recorded in all 11 U.S. host cities since the tournament opened on June 11th. Miami leads the pack with 99 seized drones, followed by Atlanta with 77, and Dallas with 63. Operators caught inside an active World Cup Temporary Flight Restriction, or TFR, face civil fines up to $75,000, criminal fines up to $100,000, up to a year in prison, and the total loss of their aircraft. At least three men in Texas are already facing federal charges. A reminder, flight restrictions surround each stadium with a ring of 3 nautical miles up to 3,000 feet. These are active from three hours before kickoff until three hours after the match ends. There are also 1-nautical-mile rings up to 1,000 feet around fan festivals. And there are continuous restrictions over team hotels and training camps that run all the way through July 21st. Reportedly, plenty of these violators actually hold Part 107 certificates. As always, please don't be that guy who ignores the rules. Every confiscated drone becomes an exhibit for lawmakers pushing for stricter counter-drone legislation. If you are flying anywhere in the country right now, check tfr.faa.gov BEFORE you fly. Next up, DJI has released the AP100 parachute for the Matrice 400! This is a 935g parachute that mounts on the back of the M400, and slows the descent rate below 5m/s or 11mph. This allows the M400 to be C5 or C6 in EASA and UK5 or UK6 in the United Kingdom… However… The AP100 will NOT be released to the US at this time. The parachute is self contained, contains a 1 hour charge using capacitors, and has a built-in flight termination system. In addition, automatic deployment can be programmed in DJI Flight Hub in the event the aircraft breaches a geofence. The parachute will broadcast an alarm and flashing lights to assist with locating the aircraft. This is pretty cool tech, it's unfortunate that it isn't coming to the US. Finally, Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl has announced a $100,000 prize for the first amateur-built RC airplane to exceed Mach 1. The prize includes $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in Boom stock. Scholl posted this challenge after a college student went viral claiming his 5-kilogram carbon-fiber dorm-built jet drone could hit 500 miles per hour. But Mach 1 is a very long way from 500 miles per hour. Mach 1 at sea level is roughly 761 miles per hour. For context, the current verified record for a jet-powered RC aircraft is 465 miles per hour. Hitting Mach 1 means dealing with extreme drag and control issues and some massive regulatory hurdles. Under Part 107, we are capped at 100 miles per hour, and the AMA turbine program caps at 200 miles per hour. A legitimate attempt at this prize would require cleared airspace, and lots of approvals. It is awesome to see a major aerospace CEO channel viral engineering talent into a legitimate challenge for the hobbyist community. And the conversation continues on Post flight where we discuss these stories uncensored in the Premium Community, link is in the description. We'll see you for the live Q&A on Monday. Have a good weekend!https://dronexl.co/2026/07/05/fbi-600-drones-seized-fifa-world-cup-2026/https://dronexl.co/2026/07/02/boom-ceo-100k-prize-mach-1-amateur-rc-airplane/https://dronexl.co/2026/07/02/dji-enterprise-teaser-priceless-below-matrice-30-successor/

Nino reports back from DJI's Malta press event with first impressions of the Osmo Pocket 4P, Johnnie's Leica SL3-P video review goes live, and Apple has a mixed week – raising MacBook and iPad prices while also shipping a meaningful Creator Studio update for Final Cut Pro. We also cover Adobe's planned acquisition of Topaz Labs, MultiDyne stepping in to save the MRMC motion-control brand, a new sun-tracking cinema viewfinder app, and a stack of smaller gear and firmware news.  This episode is sponsored by Hollyland — check it out at (25:13). Learn more: LINK Chapters & Articles Mentioned in This Episode: (00:00) Intro & topic outlook (05:32) DJI Osmo Pocket 4P Malta hands-on – 17-stop dynamic range claim and LOFIC sensor tech (26:17) Leica SL3-P review – gorgeous color rendition, confusing menu, now with video review https://www.cined.com/leica-sl3-p-review-gorgeous-color-rendition-confusing-menu/ (32:03)  7Artisans DREAM Series Announced – MF 35mm/50mm/75mm T1.5 Full-Frame Cine Lens for E/L/Z/RF Mounts https://www.cined.com/7artisans-dream-series-announced-mf-35mm-50mm-75mm-t1-5-full-frame-cine-lens-for-e-l-z-rf-mounts/ (37:07) Apple raises MacBook and iPad prices as AI memory crisis reaches consumer hardware https://www.cined.com/apple-raises-macbook-and-ipad-prices-as-ai-memory-crisis-reaches-consumer-hardware/ (40:04) Apple Creator Studio update adds generate captions, edit detection, and auto mask to Final Cut Pro https://www.cined.com/apple-creator-studio-update-adds-generate-captions-edit-detection-and-auto-mask-to-final-cut-pro/ (52:32) XPPen Pilot Pro review – a versatile editing controller, but not for everyone https://www.cined.com/xppen-pilot-pro-review-a-versatile-editing-controller-but-not-for-everyone/ (58:27) LIGHTFRAMER PRO app introduced – turns iPhone into cinema viewfinder with sun tracking https://www.cined.com/lightframer-pro-app-introduced-turns-iphone-into-cinema-viewfinder-with-sun-tracking/ (1:01:40) MultiDyne acquires MRMC assets – forms new company to revive the motion-control brand https://www.cined.com/multidyne-acquires-mrmc-assets-forms-new-company-to-revive-the-motion-control-brand/ (1:05:33) Adobe to acquire Topaz Labs – AI upscaling and image enhancement, on-device models, standalone apps to continue https://www.cined.com/adobe-to-acquire-topaz-labs-ai-upscaling-and-image-enhancement-on-device-models-standalone-apps-to-continue/ (1:11:21) AtomOS 12.7.0 for Ninja RAW, Ninja TX, and Ninja TX GO released – RAW support for Sony α7R VI, Canon EOS R6 V, and Leica SL3-P https://www.cined.com/atomos-12-7-0-for-ninja-raw-ninja-tx-and-ninja-tx-go-released-raw-support-for-sony-%ce%b17r-vi-canon-eos-r6-v-and-leica-sl3-p/ (1:12:47) ARRI LUKA Unreal Engine plugin announced – virtual ARRI lights and cameras, real-time Lumen previs, DMX and LiveLink control https://www.cined.com/arri-luka-unreal-engine-plugin-announced-virtual-arri-lights-and-cameras-real-time-lumen-previs-dmx-and-livelink-control/ (1:17:11) DaVinci Resolve 21.0.1 released – improved RAW decoding, better HDR delivery, and Sony Alpha 7R VI support https://www.cined.com/davinci-resolve-21-0-1-released-improved-raw-decoding-better-hdr-delivery-and-sony-alpha-7r-vi-support/ (1:18:48) rsv.repair by OTTOMATIC introduced – free recovery tool for Sony .RSV files https://www.cined.com/rsv-repair-by-ottomatic-introduced-free-recovery-tool-for-sony-rsv-files/ (1:21:55) KIPON drop-in variable ND PL mount adapter announced with a deep-recessed design https://www.cined.com/kipon-drop-in-variable-nd-pl-mount-adapter-announced-with-a-deep-recessed-design/ (1:23:51) iFootage Shark Slider Pico Pro released with a higher payload https://www.cined.com/ifootage-shark-slider-pico-pro-released-with-a-higher-payload/ (1:27:01) Canon EOS C50, C80, and C400 firmware updates released https://www.cined.com/canon-eos-c50-c80-and-c400-firmware-updates-released/

Robots are here, and they're going to change the world, with Unitree currently in pole position. Joining me to discuss are Niko Ciminelli, longtime SemiAnalysis advisor, robot kid and VC along with Reyk Knuhtsen, robotics lead at SemiAnalysis. Lily Ottinger cohosts. Our conversation covers: Why robots are the real general-purpose technology because, for the first time in history, we can decouple capital from human labor. How everyone keeps underestimating Unitree: the DJI and BYD playbooks, the danger of dismissing “robot dogs,” and why iteration speed matters more than dancing demos. China's edge: vertical integration, actuator manufacturing, and supply chains that make Chinese humanoids much cheaper than American ones. Why you can't AI your way out of a hardware problem or from a supply chain that makes your robot far more expensive to build. What America should do next: allied supply chains, special economic zones, and industrial policy. suno song: https://suno.com/s/EBSxwT7ltOerJJGD Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robots are here, and they're going to change the world, with Unitree currently in pole position. Joining me to discuss are Niko Ciminelli, longtime SemiAnalysis advisor, robot kid and VC along with Reyk Knuhtsen, robotics lead at SemiAnalysis. Lily Ottinger cohosts. Our conversation covers: Why robots are the real general-purpose technology because, for the first time in history, we can decouple capital from human labor. How everyone keeps underestimating Unitree: the DJI and BYD playbooks, the danger of dismissing “robot dogs,” and why iteration speed matters more than dancing demos. China's edge: vertical integration, actuator manufacturing, and supply chains that make Chinese humanoids much cheaper than American ones. Why you can't AI your way out of a hardware problem or from a supply chain that makes your robot far more expensive to build. What America should do next: allied supply chains, special economic zones, and industrial policy. suno song: https://suno.com/s/EBSxwT7ltOerJJGD Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conviértete en miembro de este canal para disfrutar de ventajas:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxz7sBKlpcpyCiPwXupRymw/joinNo te pierdas de ningún contenido:https://isamarcial.com.mxhttps://instagram.com/isa_marcialhttps://twitter.com/isa_marcial/https://facebook.com/isaias.marcialhttps://twitch.tv/isa_marcialhttps://www.tiktok.com/@isa_marcialhttp://s.kw.ai/u/@isa_marcial/9LxCxlEHhttps://anchor.fm/isamarcialhttps://t.me/isa_marcial Índice00:00 Intro y Encuesta pasada02:37 Se filtran los precios de la serie Galaxy Z Fold8, Flip8 y Galaxy Watch 905:58 HUAWEI decide congelar los precios de su línea Pura07:37 Las pantallas de los celulares también subirán de precio10:12 DJI lanza oficialmente el Mic Mini 2S13:34 Galaxy S27 tendrá otras dos mejoras inesperadasSegundo canal: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbWK7ENMKOhJDPm0Tew0eOw/featuredNegocios: contacto@isamarcial.com.mxDisfruta de más contenido:

Host: Alec Winmill (AgWeek) Guests: Stephanie Smith (Enterprise Account Executive, DroneDeploy) and Joe McQueeney (Customer Success Manager, DroneDeploy) Episode Summary This episode explores the transformative role of agricultural drone technology. We dive into how DroneDeploy turns drone imagery into actionable "digital twins" of fields, enabling growers to make immediate, data-driven decisions that save time and reduce input costs compared to traditional methods like satellite imagery Key Discussion Points The "Camera in the Sky" Concept: DroneDeploy provides reality capture that creates high-resolution digital copies of fields, allowing for rapid analysis of stand counts, plant health, and elevation in as little as 15 minutes. Efficiency vs. Satellite: Unlike satellite imagery, which can have significant turnaround latency, drone data provides real-time field-edge results, enabling proactive management of issues like fungus, pests, or replanting needs. Precision Agriculture & ROI: The technology supports precision agriculture by identifying specific areas of impact, allowing growers to treat only what is necessary, which directly addresses rising input costs. Debunking Misconceptions: We address the myths that drone technology is only for "pretty pictures" or that it requires an impossible level of technical expertise; the platform automates complex processes to make data accessible for everyone. Getting Started: For those interested in adopting the technology, the team recommends checking out DroneDeploy Academy for Part 107 certification prep and reaching out to the team to arrange trials before making hardware investments. Future Outlook: The conversation touches on the future of AI in agriculture, including automating the detection of green snap, fungus, and other field stressors to maximize farm profitability. Volumetric Analysis: We highlight the growing utility of volumetric tools for inventory management, helping dairy operations accurately measure silage piles and feed additives. Resources & Contact Inquiries: Listeners interested in demos or support can email sales@dronedeploy.com or contact Stephanie Smith directly at Stephanie.smith@dronedeploy.com. Hardware: The team recommends DJI hardware (Mavic 3 Enterprise, Matrice 4 Enterprise) and offers guidance on procurement.  

Allen covers Invenergy returning four offshore wind leases for $765 million, a Block Island study finding turbines became reefs, RES’s Smart Pilot drone inspections, RWE’s three new French wind farms, and a $12 billion Japan-UK floating wind compact. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Good Monday everyone. There is a deal being made in Washington today … and the ocean is watching. Invenergy, the largest privately held power developer in North America, has agreed to hand back four offshore wind leases to the federal government. The price tag … seven hundred sixty-five million dollars. Those leases covered waters off New York, the Gulf of Maine, and Morro Bay off central California. One of those projects … Leading Light Wind … a two-point-four gigawatt development in the New York Bight … had already been canceled last November due to economic and regulatory pressure. The remaining three lease areas represented another four-point-eight gigawatts of potential capacity. All of it … gone. In exchange, Invenergy will redirect that capital into natural gas plants in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri … and into geothermal projects across the Western United States. This is now the eighth offshore wind lease the Trump administration has bought out. Total cost to the federal government across all eight deals … more than two-point-five billion dollars. Seven state attorneys general are already suing over an earlier buyout with another developer, arguing the administration lacks legal authority to use federal funds this way. Invenergy is already pivoting toward geothermal. Just last week, the company acquired a five thousand-acre geothermal parcel in New Mexico through a federal lease sale. That brings its total federal geothermal footprint to forty-five parcels … one hundred forty-four thousand acres … across five western states. While Invenergy’s offshore leases are being canceled … the ocean beneath those kinds of projects may be quietly thriving. Scientists have spent seven years studying the Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island … America’s first offshore wind installation. They tracked nearly a million marine animals across seventy-one species. What they expected to find was damage. What they found instead … was astounding. Black sea bass abandoned their old wandering patterns and began clustering around the turbine foundations to feed. Blue mussels colonized the steel pylons. Macroalgae spread across the submerged surfaces. Cod, lobster, and reef fish moved into the rock piled around the bases. The turbines became reefs. Accidental … but unmistakable. Researchers at the University of St. Andrews strapped GPS trackers to harbor seals expecting them to flee offshore wind farms. Instead … the seals swam straight lines through the turbine rows … stopping to forage at each foundation … like a delivery driver working a route. One seal traced the turbine layout so precisely that researchers said you could have mapped every foundation from that single animal’s trail alone. Researchers are finding a sobering conclusion: whether a turbine helps the ocean or hurts it depends almost entirely on how old it is … and where it stands. New foundations going in … disruptive. Old foundations with fifteen years of growth on them … something closer to a reef. The science is finally precise enough to say which is which. The seals figured it out years ago. They just went where the food was … in very straight lines. Meanwhile, on dry land … RES, the global renewable energy company, has launched a new tool called Smart Pilot that automates wind turbine blade inspections using drones. RES says it will take twenty-five percent less time. And it runs on standard DJI consumer drone hardware … no proprietary equipment required. RES currently supports approximately forty-five gigawatts of installed renewable capacity worldwide. And over in France … RWE has officially opened three new wind farms in northern France. Combined capacity: sixty-eight-point-eight megawatts. Together, they will power approximately thirty-eight thousand French households with electricity from the wind. The projects took a decade from development to inauguration. The turbines are spinning now. And over in the UK, Japan and the United Kingdom have signed an Offshore Wind Compact committing Japan to facilitate up to nine billion British pounds … roughly twelve billion dollars … in investment for five-point-nine gigawatts of floating offshore wind in British waters. Three projects underpin the deal. Ossian … three-point-six gigawatts … Green Volt … five hundred sixty megawatts … and Erebus … a one hundred megawatt demonstration project planned for the Celtic Sea. The United Kingdom called it a long-term structural measure. Not a reaction to the moment. But a bet on the future. There are many roadblocks ahead for offshore and onshore wind. That is clear. Invenergy turning over their offshore leases feels more like financial leveraging than an internal philosophy shift. At some point in the relatively near future Invenergy can probably buy back those leases at a fraction of the cost. Because wind energy — along with solar energy — is only getting cheaper. And economics eventually wins. And the worry about sea life due to offshore turbines — that worry seems misplaced. And that’s the state of the wind industry for the 22nd of June 2026. Join us tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

In this episode, Jared & Stephen discuss Canon's rumored 24-70 f2 along with a "world's first" lens, how DJI and Insta360 are now suing EACHOTHER, a wild wide angle lens is supposedly coming to the E-mount & more! Text us with any thoughts and questions regarding this episode at 313-710-9729. This is RAWtalk Episode 201!

In this week's Focus Check, Nino and Johnnie tackle an industry in a tumultuous, consolidation-heavy phase. They open with the escalating Insta360 vs. DJI patent war over the Luna Ultra, then move through Artlist's layoffs, the US approval of Paramount's Warner Bros. merger, and MRMC's surprise liquidation just weeks after Nikon sold it off. From there the episode shifts into new gear: the budget Blazar Sentinel anamorphic zoom, the large-format Angénieux EZ 65 cine zooms, the Hollyland Astra P1 PTZ camera, the DJI Lito 1 drone, the SKYROVER S1 and X1 combos, Godox's inflatable lights, Tilta's foldable charger, plus deep dives on self-made virtual production and shooting a rocket launch in Apple Immersive Video. (00:00) Intro   (05:35) DJI sues Insta360, and Insta360 countersues DJI over Luna Ultra patent war https://www.cined.com/dji-sues-insta360-over-luna-cameras-seeking-a-u-s-sales-ban-on-launch-day/  https://www.cined.com/insta360-countersues-dji-over-luna-ultra-patent-war-asserting-five-u-s-patents/   (35:57) Artlist lays off 200 employees a year after hiring 120 https://www.cined.com/a-year-after-hiring-120-people-artlist-lays-off-200-employees/   (45:45) Paramount's $111 billion Warner Bros. merger wins US approval https://www.cined.com/paramounts-111-billion-warner-bros-merger-wins-us-approval-but-the-fight-is-far-from-over/   (48:25) MRMC enters liquidation weeks after Nikon exit https://www.cined.com/mrmc-enters-liquidation-weeks-after-nikon-exit-with-asset-sale-agreed-but-not-yet-closed/   (51:28) Blazar Sentinel anamorphic zoom announced https://www.cined.com/blazar-sentinel-anamorphic-zoom-announced-35-60mm-1-33x-squeeze-full-frame-coverage-970g/   (56:44) Angénieux EZ 65 series announced https://www.cined.com/angenieux-ez-65-series-announced-two-large-format-zooms-60mm-image-circle-lpl-mount/   (59:31) Hollyland Astra P1 PTZ camera announced https://www.cined.com/hollyland-astra-p1-ptz-camera-announced-uhd-4k60-30x-optical-zoom-ai-auto-tracking-and-more/   (1:03:12) DJI Lito 1 review https://www.cined.com/dji-lito-1-review-entry-level-drone-with-4k100-and-omnidirectional-vision/   (1:08:44) SKYROVER S1 and X1 Fly More combos add a touchscreen remote https://www.cined.com/skyrover-s1-and-x1-fly-more-combos-add-a-new-touchscreen-remote-with-5-5-inch-display/   (1:15:32) Godox LR150 Air and LC500R Air released https://www.cined.com/godox-lr150-air-and-lc500r-air-released-inflatable-ring-and-wand-heads-one-battery-grip-92-minute-runtime/   (1:19:30) Tilta foldable charging station introduced https://www.cined.com/tilta-foldable-charging-station-introduced-6-channel-np-f-charging-priority-fast-charge-mode-tft-status-display/   (1:22:49) Self-made virtual production – what do you need to get started? https://www.cined.com/self-made-virtual-production-what-do-you-need-to-get-started/   (1:24:53) Shooting a rocket launch in Apple Immersive Video https://www.cined.com/shooting-a-rocket-launch-in-apple-immersive-video-with-the-ursa-cine-immersive/

With a PetaPixel Membership, not only can you support original PetaPixel reporting and in-depth reviews, but you can also remove ads from the website and gain access to some seriously great perks, too. Members get $15 off the Moment Store, 5% off certified pre-owned gear from KEH, 10% off lighting gear from FJ Westcott, download full-resolution RAW files and JPEGs from the latest cameras and lenses, and MORE! It costs just $3 per month or $30 per year. Join today!Now saving when you shop for your favorite gear at B&H Photo is even easier with the B&H Payboo Credit Card which lets you Save the Tax — you pay the tax, and B&H pays you back instantly! (Save the Tax on eligible purchases shipped to eligible states.) OR you can pay over time with our 6 & 12 month financing (on minimum purchases of $199 for 6 months, and $599 for 12 months). Terms apply, learn more at http://bhphoto.com/payboo. Credit card offers are subject to credit approval.Payboo Credit Card Accounts are issued by Comenity Capital BankIn This Episode:00:00 - Intro13:52 - Insta360 and DJI are going at it, as DJI sues and then Insta360 sues back22:20 - Apple's RAW update is substantial28:37 - The company that bought WeTransfer, Vimeo, and Filmic Pro is going public31:32 - Viltrox announced two new affordable portrait primes35:08 - Zeiss has discontinued the DSLR Otus primes37:22 - The Cinelux Sixteen camera shoots digital and Super 16 at the same time42:58 - Metabones' new adapter promises near native glass AF performance46:57 - Lumix released a very buggy firmware update50:02 - Kodak Charmera is back for round two56:01 - Deep dive into LoCA1:00:57 - Zeiss Refutes Rumors Cosina Developed Otus ML Lenses1:04:31 - Could Nikon make a "heritage series" of lenses?1:12:24 - What have you been up to?1:17:15 - Tech support1:23:54 - Nya-Evo Fjord1:29:05 - Feel Good story of the week

Conviértete en miembro de este canal para disfrutar de ventajas:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxz7sBKlpcpyCiPwXupRymw/joinNo te pierdas de ningún contenido:https://isamarcial.com.mxhttps://instagram.com/isa_marcialhttps://twitter.com/isa_marcial/https://facebook.com/isaias.marcialhttps://twitch.tv/isa_marcialhttps://www.tiktok.com/@isa_marcialhttp://s.kw.ai/u/@isa_marcial/9LxCxlEHhttps://anchor.fm/isamarcialhttps://t.me/isa_marcial Índice00:00 Intro y Encuesta pasada02:06 HONOR X70 Pro Max y X80 Pro Max06:14 Fox compra Roku por 22,000 millones de dólares para adueñarse de las Smart TV08:31 vivo X Fold 6: El próximo rival del Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra tendrá kit teleconvertidor11:28 TECNO POVA 8 5G y Spark 50 Pro: Nuevos gama media con diseño intergaláctico y hasta 8,000 mAh15:58 DJI lanza la Osmo Pocket 4P de doble cámara e Insta360 responde con una contrademanda19:59 HUAWEI Pura X TriFold: Filtran patente de un revolucionario plegable tríptico en formato verticalSegundo canal: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbWK7ENMKOhJDPm0Tew0eOw/featuredNegocios: contacto@isamarcial.com.mxDisfruta de más contenido:

Neste episódio do C.A.O.S. Fotográfico, Leo Saldanha analisa como a inteligência artificial deixou de ser apenas uma novidade técnica e passou a interferir diretamente na percepção de valor da fotografia.A conversa passa pela mudança no comportamento do consumidor, pela pressão sobre entregas medianas, pelo crescimento dos serviços híbridos, pela importância do bastidor autoral e pela necessidade de o fotógrafo assumir um papel mais amplo como especialista em imagem.O episódio também conecta movimentos recentes do mercado, como a disputa entre DJI e Insta360, a perda de força da GoPro, o retorno das câmeras compactas entre jovens, os modelos de venda e comunidade na fotografia e exemplos históricos que ajudam a pensar autoria, autenticidade e relevância.Mais do que listar ferramentas, o episódio propõe uma pergunta central: por que alguém escolheria um fotógrafo quando parte da imagem já pode ser criada com IA?A resposta passa por experiência, visão, direção, atendimento, presença humana e capacidade de transformar imagem em valor.C.A.O.S. Fotográfico é uma série de comentários e análises sobre mercado, inovação, inteligência artificial, negócios e cultura visual para quem vive da fotografia e da imagem.Nesta quarta (17/6) às 20:30. O momento e o futuro da IA na fotografia - https://www.enfbyleosaldanha.com/post/momento-futuro-fotografia-com-iaPara acompanhar mais análises sobre fotografia, IA, mercado, marketing e posicionamento, acesse:https://www.enfbyleosaldanha.comNovidade: uma nova forma de entrar para a comunidade. Conheça Fotograf.IA Essencial: https://www.enfbyleosaldanha.com/post/fotograf-ia-essencial-ia-negocios-inovacao-fotografosEste conteúdo faz parte da leitura contínua de mercado feita por Leo Saldanha para fotógrafos profissionais, empreendedores da imagem e marcas ligadas ao setor fotográfico. Baseado no briefing enviado sobre o episódio e seus temas centrais.Continuidade é na iniciativa Fotograf.IA+C.E.Foto - https://www.enfbyleosaldanha.com/comunidade-fotograf-iaSe você vive da fotografia, este não é mais um vídeo de tendência. É uma leitura de cenário.→ Toda segunda, às 21h, tem análise ao vivo→ Conteúdos completos no blog, Spotify e comunidadeSaia da ilha. Entenda o jogo.Links citadosMapa R.U.M.O.https://www.enfbyleosaldanha.com/mapa-rumo-2026O C.A.O.S. Fotográfico é uma série de encontros semanais onde analisamos os movimentos do mercado da imagem, tecnologia e criatividade.Se você trabalha com fotografia, audiovisual ou criação de conteúdo, este episódio oferece uma leitura estratégica do momento atual da profissão.

Today, I'm talking with Slydio CEO Adam Bry, who runs the leading US maker of autonomous drones. We covered a lot in this conversation, including Skydio's police and government work at a time when military use of AI is more controversial than ever and competing with Chinese drones against the backdrop of the Trump's administration's DJI ban. There's a lot in this one – maybe more than anything, it was refreshing to hear Adam talk about using AI to bring even more people to work at Skydio as the company expands. I also got to fly a drone, which ruled. Links:  Sorry kid, drones are for war now | The Verge The FCC's foreign drone ban is here | The Verge Skydio is pivoting to enterprise — its consumer drones are dead | The Verge Skydio commits $3.5B to expand US manufacturing | Skydio A US drone maker tries to take back the country's skies | Bloomberg DEA looks to add Skydio, Parrot drones to its arsenal | FedScoop The future of border security isn't at the border at all | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UK banning kids from social media. Courts rule that NOBODY needs AI search. Meta back peddles fast on face recognition. The US government bans new Anthropic models. Stanford students walk out on Google CEO commencement speech. SpaceX IPO was a success. AI is getting more and more expensive. Xbox is struggling with component pricing, and considering in game ads as a way to boost revenue. Xiaomi's next chip could be a punchy performer. Insta360 and DJI are counter-suing each other over gimbal cameras. Steam Machine might be launching in a couple weeks! Let's get our tech week started off RIGHT! -- Show notes and links: https://somegadgetguy.com/b/4dz Support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu Find out more at https://talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-c117ce for 40% off for 4 months, and support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy.

In this episode, Jared & Stephen discuss Jared's latest trip to Canada and his on-going issue with getting his 4x5 film X-RAYED yet again, DJI's new Pocket 4 Pro and Insta360's Luna Ultra pocket gimbal, how Apple is pushing forward with more enhancements to their computational iOS photography, Canon's rumored big-ass glass with built-in TCs & more! Text us with any thoughts and questions regarding this episode at 313-710-9729. This is RAWtalk Episode 200!

एक समय था जब युद्ध की पहचान टैंक, फाइटर जेट और लाखों सैनिकों से होती थी। लेकिन आज 500 डॉलर का एक FPV ड्रोन करोड़ों डॉलर के हथियारों को तबाह कर सकता है। Ukraine-Russia War से लेकर Middle East के संघर्षों तक, ड्रोन ने युद्ध की परिभाषा ही बदल दी है। इस विशेष बातचीत में वरिष्ठ रक्षा पत्रकार Sandeep Unnithan के साथ समझिए कि ड्रोन आखिर इतने बड़े गेमचेंजर कैसे बने, सैन्य ड्रोन और आम DJI ड्रोन में क्या अंतर होता है, FPV Drones और Drone Swarms कितने खतरनाक हैं, और क्या भविष्य के युद्ध AI द्वारा संचालित मशीनें लड़ेंगी। इस एपिसोड में जानिए: • Drone Warfare का विकास और इतिहास • Ukraine-Russia War से मिले सबक • FPV Drones और Drone Swarms का खतरा • China, Pakistan और Drone Technology की दौड़ • AI-Guided Drones और Autonomous Weapons • क्या टैंक और फाइटर जेट्स अप्रासंगिक हो रहे हैं? • भारत की Drone Warfare तैयारियां • आतंकवाद और ड्रोन का भविष्य • 2035 का युद्ध कैसा दिखेगा? • क्या भविष्य के युद्ध सैनिक नहीं, सॉफ्टवेयर इंजीनियर तय करेंगे? अगर आप Defence, Geopolitics, Military Technology, AI, International Relations और Future Warfare में रुचि रखते हैं, तो यह एपिसोड आपके लिए है।

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update, we have three stories for you this week; DJI audited by US-Based Cybersecurity firm OnDefend, a custom FPV drone hits 730 kilometers per hour, and SkyeBrowse rolls out another major product update. Let's get to it.First up this week, DJI released the findings of an independent security assessment conducted by U.S.-based cybersecurity firm OnDefend on May 28, 2026. The assessment evaluated the DJI Air 3S with RC 2 controller and the Matrice 4E with RC Plus 2 Enterprise controller. Test units were procured from retail outlets and dealer stock without pre-notification to DJI.The assessment ran from October 2025 through March 2026 and produced zero critical, high, or medium-risk findings. Specifically, OnDefend reported no evidence of data transmission outside the United States, no backdoors or unauthorized remote access mechanisms, no unexplained radio frequency emissions, and no supply chain tampering or unauthorized hardware modifications. Controllers also resisted jailbreak and firmware modification attempts. Ten low-risk findings and thirteen observations were identified, primarily related to application security configurations, session handling, and wireless hardening. DJI stated it is working to address remaining items in subsequent software releases.DJI cited the findings in connection with its ongoing appeal of its December 2025 inclusion on the FCC Covered List, which was not accompanied by a documented security vulnerability. The release noted that more than 80% of the 1,800-plus state and local law enforcement agencies operating drones use DJI platforms, and that 43% of drone business users surveyed indicated DJI restrictions would have an extremely negative or business-ending impact on operations. This comes just a few weeks after the FCC's request for comment closed on reconsidering DJI's addition to the entity list, prohibiting them from introducing new models in the US.Next up, Australian aerospace engineer Benjamin Biggs just pushed his custom Blackbird drone to an absolutely blistering 730 kilometers per hour, or 454 miles per hour, on a downwind run! Flying back into the wind, the drone hit 640 kilometers per hour, giving it a two-direction average of 685 kilometers per hour, or 426 miles per hour.  Unfortunately, this incredible speed run won't count for the record books. The team didn't have accredited Guinness observers on site, the winds were gusting up to 60 kilometers per hour, and the drone didn't land on a clean battery. They also lost one of their two drones at 630 kilometers per hour when the video feed completely dropped out. The team reportedly believes this was caused by the Doppler effect messing with the digital video link as the drone screamed past the pilot.  Last up, SkyeBrowse has rolled out a major update to their core videogrammetry engine. If you use their software for 3D modeling, you'll want to pay attention to this. Every plan on their platform now has upgraded accuracy, better texture rendering, and faster tooling at no additional charge. According to their internal benchmarks, there is a 3X improvement in matching accuracy when you combine multiple video sources. They also upgraded their AI Floor Plans, which are now twice as accurate and can be exported from any interior model in about 20 seconds. On top of that, their Image Walkthroughs feature, which lets you navigate through structured spaces using high-quality photos, is now available to everyone for free. That's it for this week, see you next week for Post flight where we'll discuss these stories uncensored, live Q&A on Monday, and News update on Friday! https://www.dji.com/ca/trust-centerhttps://dronexl.co/2026/05/22/blackbird-biggs-730-kmh-drone-speed-record/https://www.skyebrowse.com/news/posts/major-product-update

The future of war has been evolving before our eyes in Ukraine, yet the west still plans to fight the last war. In this special episode, guest host Noah Smith (@noahpinion) and Brandon Anderson sit down with Yaroslav Azhnyuk (@YaroslavAzhnyuk), a serial tech founder who went from building PetCube to founding The Fourth Law, one of the world's most advanced AI-guided drone companies. Over two hours we cover the technology, tactics, and geopolitics of drone warfare, and why the modern battlefield has already left the West behind:* Yaroslav's personal history and the Ukraine war [00:01:04 – 00:14:01]* The modern drone tech stack: why FPV drones are the new god of war, the future of the rifleman, fiber optic vs. AI, five levels of autonomy, and the eight dimensions of the autonomous battlefield [00:14:01 – 01:05:13]* The geopolitics and economics of drones: China's manufacturing advantage, the drone race, Western defense readiness, countermeasures, and why the gap is widening [01:05:13 – 01:58:57]For those looking for Noah Smith's commentary, it really gets going around the 00:51:31 mark.Yaroslav Azhnyuk / The Fourth Law:* X: https://x.com/YaroslavAzhnyuk* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaroslavazhnyuk/* The Fourth Law: https://thefourthlaw.aiNoah Smith:* Substack: Noah Smith * X: https://x.com/noahpinionTimestamps00:00:00 Cold Open: China's 4 Billion Drones and the Cameras-to-Explosives Pipeline00:01:04 Introduction: Brandon, Noah Smith, and Yaroslav Azhnyuk00:05:41 From Tech Entrepreneur to Defense: PetCube, Brave One, and the D3 Fund00:10:42 The Ethics of Building Weapons: Dual-Use Technology and the Wolf at the Door00:14:01 The Tech Stack: Cameras, Autonomy Modules, Interceptors, and a Semiconductor Fab00:18:47 Fiber Optic vs. AI: The Radio Horizon Problem and $32/km Cable00:25:32 FPV Drones: The New God of War — 70–80% of Frontline Casualties00:28:28 The Five Levels of Drone Autonomy: From Terminal Guidance to Full Autonomy00:41:37 The Eight Dimensions of the Autonomous Battlefield00:45:32 AI Safety and the Morality of Autonomous Weapons00:51:31 The End of the Rifleman? Noah's 2013 Prediction vs. Battlefield Reality01:05:13 China's Manufacturing Advantage and Western Vulnerabilities01:24:21 Policy Advice for Western Defense: Defense Valley and the Widening Gap01:32:54 The Drone Race: Who's Ahead, Category by Category01:41:57 Countermeasures: Shotguns, Jammers, Lasers, and Fishnets01:58:19 The Wedding and Final Takeaway: Be Prepared for WarTranscriptCold Open: China, FPV Drones, and the New Warning SignYaroslav [00:00:00]: Think about this. Last year, Ukraine produced 4 million FPV drones. Ukraine is not the most industrious nation in the world. China can produce 4 billion of these FPV drones.Noah [00:00:10]: Would you say that right now China is now the supreme conventional military power on Earth, given its ability to manufacture and deploy drones in the quantity and quality that you just described?Yaroslav [00:00:20]: I don't think we have all the information to claim that but we cannot count it out, and that alone should be a big warning sign. As I say, at some point in my life I went from making cameras that fling treats to pets to cameras that fling explosives to the occupiers. So that's the short story. And when you think about what your nation, what your patriots are going through, you realize that's the only morally right thing to do is to fight back, and it is immoral not to fight back, and then the choice becomes very clear.Introduction: Yaroslav Azhnyuk, Petcube, and the Last Flight into KyivBrandon [00:01:04]: Welcome to Latent Space. I'm Brandon. I normally do science podcasts, but today we're going to do something a little bit different. I'm joined by Noah Smith of Noahpinion on Substack and Twitter. And he has lots of interesting things to say about drones. And as a guest, we have Yaroslav Azhnyuk, founder of The Fourth Law and several other, drone-related startups. To get started, it is February 23rd, 2022. You are running a pet startup. You're connecting pets with their owners. Let's go in just a little bit of background. How did you get started in tech, and what were you working on before the Ukrainian war started?Yaroslav [00:01:50]: Good to be here. Thank you. On February 23rd, late in the evening, 11:00 PM Kyiv time, my wife and I landed in Kyiv. Actually, then she was a fiance. We came from Lviv, where we were looking at a church, where our wedding should have taken place. And we got into this cab ride from the airport to our home, and the driver was like, “You crazy. Like, everyone's leaving Kyiv. Why do you come?” We're like, “What? Nothing's going to happen. Dude, chill.” And then obviously, eight minutes later, or eight hours later, the bombs fell in the city. It was quite surreal. We probably landed on the last flight that landed in Kyiv, or one of those last flights. My background, I'm a tech guy. Studied applied mathematics in Kyiv Polytechnics, born and raised in Kyiv. My parents are old PhDs from academia, and grandparents too. Like, everything, from linguistics to nuclear physics. And I'm an entrepreneur, so I've built a bunch of companies. Petcube is the one you were referencing. So I lived in San Francisco 2014 to 2020, building Petcube, which is one of the leading, pet device companies in the world, selling lots of pet cameras. And then, yeah, as I say, at some point in my life I went from making cameras that fling treats to pets to cameras that fling explosives to the occupiers. So that's the short story.February 24th: Leaving Kyiv as the Invasion BeginsNoah [00:03:28]: February 24th, I guess a few hours after you, go to check out your wedding chapel, what do you do?Yaroslav [00:03:37]: We had a plan for this situation. So my parents and family live in Kyiv, and we're like, “Okay, this has actually started. The worst has, come true.” And so we basically packed our belongings and got in the car and spent 17 hours driving west. And that was pretty sure most people in our audience watched at least one apocalyptic movie in their life, so that was exactly like that. Like, felt exactly like that. Missiles are falling. Like, there was smoke in Kyiv. Like, my dad and I went, like, to central part of the cities. It's probably, likeYaroslav [00:04:20]: 800 meters from presidential office, to pick some stuff up at his workplace. Because he's, like, the head of an academic institution, so he had to get some of the things with him. And super surreal. Like, the streets are empty. Like, the gas stations are out of gas. Like, we found some gas station. We didn't have, like, spare canisters with us, so we're like, We figured out, like, the car was diesel, so like, we figured out, if it's diesel, you can actually store it in plastic, canisters, and we bought some window wash for the cars. We poured it out of the canisters, and we poured the diesel into that. Yeah, so it was like that. And then, like, helping friends get out, like my friend and his dog. Like, we found Like, my brother was also, like, riding in a separate car. We found a place for my friend who didn't have a car. It was like, yeah, it was like, totally surreal. And we didn't know of course, and you didn't know this will last for so long. You didn't know whether Ukraine will be able to defend Kyiv. And it was like, yeah, very little information and very little insight into future.From Pet Cameras to Defense Tech: Building for Ukraine and the Free WorldNoah [00:05:42]: What are your thoughts with regards to how do you, defend, Ukraine? So you eventually start building drones Like, what is the process to get from there from where you were building, devices that connect owners with pets to building drones, and what other things did you do to help the war effort in the process?Yaroslav [00:06:07]: It's definitely non-trivial, right? Like, I didn't go, to I didn't get any, like, military education when I was a student. Like, normally, in Ukraine, you would, you would go to like, this military school even if you're getting higher education in any other, sphere. I decided to skip that which is like, an unusual way to go. And I never thought that I will be somehow engaged in a war effort. Like, what is war? Of course, wars are over. It's the end of history. So one thing you got to understand about, like, many Ukrainians and like, I guess, it's also true about most of the people I met here in the US, that your who you are in terms of your nationality is a big part of your identity. So when that gets under attack, it's something deeper than just the country you live in gets under attack, right? And I Day one, I figured I'm going to I'm going to fight back with everything I can, right? But I didn't think on day one that I'm actually going to do, weapons. And a bunch of things. We were reaching out to a number of American, congresspeople and senators, and basically advocating for support of Ukraine, for voting for lend lease, which has happened in May 2022, but didn't actually work as expected. We helped start, Brave One, which is now a very important defense innovation cluster, sort of like a DIU here in the US. We helped start, a fund called D3. It's like, it was started or co-started by Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google. So a bunch of these odd things, but then eventually I was like, “Okay,”by 2023 it was obvious this thing, A is going to last a lot more time, and B, that the whole world is shifting and that there's going to be a new arms race, that the warfare is redefined by drones as platforms. And for the first time in history, you have a platform that is software defined, that can increase your battlefield capabilities, in a in a step change just overnight. So it's like if you were able to push a software update and get all of your Roman legionnaires a new helmet? That has never been possible before. It's the first time in the history of war this is possible. So all of that and many other things like, supply chain fragilization, and the impact that AI is going to have on all of this all these things have become evident to me in 2023, and it's like, “Okay, I should do what I do best, or what I know how to do best, start a tech company, and sort of leverage the global techno capitalist machine, to provide, defensibility to Ukraine and the free world.” So that's literally the mission of the company, increase defensibility of Ukraine and the free world. And then there was some sort of soul-searching and like, asking yourself. It's like, “Okay, am I Actually, I know nothing about weapons. Am I actually, like, ready to make, things that other people use to kill other bad people?”Yaroslav [00:09:36]: When you think about what your nation, what your Compatriots are going through And think about all the terror of places like Bucha, the occupied cities in the east and south, the abducted children, the raped women, all the economic damage that's being done, and the intention to destroy a whole nation, to genocide the people of Ukraine, you realize that's the only morally right thing to do is to fight back, and it is immoral not to fight back. And then the choice becomes very clear. And look, we're just passing the ammunition. We're not doing the actual job. The actual fighters and defenders and heroes are people in the armed forces. We're just support.The Moral Question: Weapons, Responsibility, and Fighting BackNoah [00:10:33]: I have so many questions. Actually, I know you seem to have a question. Do you want to ask anything?Yaroslav [00:10:38]: No, I'm just listening. Go ahead.Noah [00:10:40]: I do want to talk about, some of let's say, the moral issues, like you just said. You endYaroslav [00:10:50]: I think there are no issues there.Yaroslav [00:10:52]: What would an example of a moral question be in this case?Noah [00:10:55]: No, I mean Okay. As you just said, you are creating the tools, but others are using them.Noah [00:11:05]: I was maybe thinking of having this conversation later, but one of the questions is like, is it actually you are going to be building them for your homeland, which you are building it for your homeland, which is I think, very a strong morally defensible position, but this technology is not going to stay with you, right?Noah [00:11:26]: This you will probably be selling these to other people Yeah. So the future is really where the moral issues may come into playYaroslav [00:11:38]: The this question becomes, easier and more complete if we ask this not about a particular technology or particular weapon, if we think that this question actually applies to any kind of technology Right? So -Knife or fire. You can use knife to do surgery and save people's lives, or you can use it as a weapon to take people's lives.Noah [00:12:06]: Cut tomatoes, too.Yaroslav [00:12:08]: Cut tomatoes too.Noah [00:12:09]: Yes, knife.Yaroslav [00:12:09]: That's helpful.Noah [00:12:10]: In Japan, sword and knife, they, call the same word.Yaroslav [00:12:14]: It's like, it's with any technology. Large language models, right? Look at how powerful they are and yet they're available to anyone in North Korea or in Russia.Yaroslav [00:12:29]: That's one side of the argument. The other side is As a maker, what is your responsibility for how the tools you're creating, will be used? There's definitely some responsibility, right? Then How should the decision process look like? Should you, like, try to calculate all the possible scenarios before starting to work on something? Or do you create something that is needed now to save people's lives, and then think about, addressing the unwanted edge cases later? In ideal world where there's like, or okay, it's not ideal world. In a mythical world where there is some one governing party and it gets to decide everything, and there is no other country, that can, decide on their own, you could say, “Well, we need to calculate for all the consequences, and only then, maybe build this building, by replacing this park because, maybe we need this park in the city,”right? So that kind of situation. But when you're in a situation where you're in a forest, in front of a wolf, you first going to deal with the wolf that wants to eat you, and then you're going to go consult Greenpeace. So that's kind of situation that Ukraine is in.The Fourth Law, Odd Systems, and Ukraine's Drone StackNoah [00:13:59]: Enough. Because this is a tech podcast, I did want to spend some time talking about, sort of the tech in that you've developed and what you've been working on. So can you explain, I guess, first of all, like, the problem that you were trying to solve from a technical standpoint? And I think, and then maybe, like, go into some of the solutions and some of the design process that led you from designing, little laser-guided, guiding lasers with a with an iPhone versus Having drones.Yaroslav [00:14:34]: Like, it so happened, that my partners and I, we sort of So I started one company called The Fourth Law, and its goal was and is to Make, massively scalable on-drone autonomy. And then In parallel with that together with my, Petcube co-founders, partners, and friends, we started another company called Odd Systems Which, was focused on making thermal cameras. Cameras, thermal cameras are seeing thermal radiation and are used to see at night. And we're now sort of those companies are getting closer and closer together and we're probably going to merge them. And this group of companies is currently the leading, team in on-drone AI and thermal imaging on the Ukrainian battlefield, and Likely one of the leading, if not the leading in the world. So We have these, like, three sort of business units, which are cameras, drone autonomy, and drones. So the cameras and drone autonomy sell daytime and nighttime cameras and different types of drone autonomous modules to other drone manufacturers, over 200 drone manufacturers in Ukraine. And then the UAV, business unit sells the drones themselves to the armed forces of Ukraine, Ukrainian government. And there are different types of drones. Those are sort of front strike, as we call them, so those are sort of FPV strike drones and the bombers, and then interceptors. And there are different kinds of interceptors. We do Shahed interceptors and we do ISR interceptors. We don't do the deep strike-FPV Drones, Interceptors, and Battery-Powered WarfareNoah [00:16:32]: What's an ISR interceptor?Yaroslav [00:16:33]: ISR is stands for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and those are basically drones which are which, Russians are using to watch over positions and then communicate where, the targets are coming.Noah [00:16:48]: It's a reconnaissance.Yaroslav [00:16:48]: That's, the ISR is sort of a classical term for a for a reconnaissance drone.Noah [00:16:53]: Are all of these battery-powered drones that you just described? ‘Cause I know that the sort of deep strike drones still have, like Some sort ofYaroslav [00:17:01]: Internal combustion engine?Noah [00:17:02]: Internal combustion engine. Are all the things you're talking about battery-powered?Yaroslav [00:17:06]: What we're working on is all battery-powered, right? We don't do the deep strikes, right? And then in terms of autonomy-Noah [00:17:12]: You can catch a Shahed with a battery-powered thing. It's not Fast to catch.Yaroslav [00:17:17]: No, absolutely. Look, Shahed interceptor, like ours, it's called Zero, it goes up to 326 kilometers per hour.Noah [00:17:26]: For reference, how fast is a Shahed?Yaroslav [00:17:28]: Eight, like, in internal phase it could be 280, but in cruise phase it's, like, 220-ish.Yaroslav [00:17:36]: Yeah. And sorry, I'm not like you can convert that into miles if you're interested.Noah [00:17:41]: No, that's fine.Noah [00:17:41]: Multiply by two thirds or point six or something.Yaroslav [00:17:44]: That's easy. Yeah, I was saying that for autonomy modules, right, we, -We make systems, autonomous systems for frontline, for interceptors and some for deep strikes as well, and then different levels of autonomy. So from terminal guidance, which is like lasts 500 meters, give or take, to autonomous bombing, to autonomous target detection, to autonomous navigation and all of that across day and night, different terrains, different time of the year, different platforms like quadcopters and fixed wing, and maybe some other platforms. So it's quite a wide variety of products. We also have like our own simulation. We have our own training school for the war fighters. And we're about to start construction of two, semiconductor plants to make, sensors for thermal cameras. So that's super exciting for me as a computer science guy is Doing semiconductors. Super cool.Noah [00:18:49]: Like in terms of kind of core drone technologies, you basically are one is an FPV replacement without fiber optics, and the other isYaroslav [00:18:59]: YouNoah [00:18:59]: Signal tracking with interceptorsYaroslav [00:19:00]: With or without fiber optics. Fiber optics Is just like, sort of a communication module.Yaroslav [00:19:05]: You can, you can use classical analog, video link and radio link. Those would be two separate radios. You can do digital, or you can do fiber optic, and then fiber optic Has its own advantages but also adds weight and decreases, the distance and decreases, how fast you can, sort of turn and With a drone. Yeah.Noah [00:19:33]: Do you need AI for fiber optic drones?Yaroslav [00:19:36]: Like you can use AI for fiber optic drones. AI replaces a human, right? Fiber optic is making your communication link more resilient. So those are slightly different goals. Like if you want, you can have, AI controlling hundreds of fiber optic drones instead of having 100 operators for each.Fiber Optics, Radio Horizons, and Terminal GuidanceNoah [00:20:03]: I guess I thought that the key reason that people moved to fiber optic drones was for like electronic, countermeasures. Or I guess to counter those.Yaroslav [00:20:13]: I think that's a correct assessment from sort of a public awareness standpoint. In practice it's somewhat more difficult Because besides electronic countermeasures, you have these issues of a radio horizon For FPV drones, which means that asYaroslav [00:20:36]: I believe Earth is round Some people disagree. But basically if you fly a drone and you have a land station over here and a drone flying over hereYaroslav [00:20:49]: If your drone is flying high, you have good direct radio visibility. If your drone goes low, and usually, Russian infantry and vehicles, they're on the ground and you want to hit them, you need to go low. Lower you go, maybe you'll get behind a hill or behind a forest, and if you're far enough, you'll just get behind the curvature of the earth. You get into what's called a radio shadow. And then That is a real bummer because for the last, be it 60 or 20 meters, you won't be able to see anything and it will be very difficult to hit the target. So to counter that what-- And then the distances that these FPV drones, act on they're, they can be quite large. So for example, here in the US there was this drone dominance program competition, and in drone dominance the furthest distance was about 10 kilometers.Noah [00:21:44]: What was drone dominance? What was that competition?Yaroslav [00:21:47]: Drone, the drone dominance is a is a program started, by the US government, to accelerate the development of drone technology here in the US.Noah [00:21:57]: Got it. And the longest range thing they were using was 10 kilometers.Yaroslav [00:22:00]: Was 10 kilometers, right. In Ukraine, like if your drone doesn't fly at least 20, 25, it just, no one's interested in it, and the usual hits are happening. It was like, okay, many hits are happening between 30 and 40 kilometers, and that's what expected from a regular 10-inch, FPV drone. So at that distance, even at altitudes of like 60 to 100 meters, you might start losing, the link. So some of the earlier AI technology that was fielded in FPV drone was this terminal guidance technology. That was the first product that we ever, launched that helped you as an operator, once you see the target from two, three, 500 meters, you lock onto the target and then, it just, drives the drone towards the target no matter what, even after you lost the visual connection. So optic fiber solves that. However, if you want to go like 20 kilometers with optic fiber, that will add an extra three kilos, of useful weight to your drone. SoNoah [00:23:12]: ‘Cause the cable that you have to unspool as you go weighs.Noah [00:23:15]: It is heavy.Yaroslav [00:23:15]: At first, like the spool is about 800 grams, so a bit less than a kilo, and then, and then think about 10, 10 kilometer optic fiber is another kilo, something like that. That takes away from your useful mass and then now you have like, you need a 15-inch drone and it can only carry maybe one or two kilos of explosives if you want to go, 20 kilometers. If you want to go to 30 or 40, like 30 is probably max. 40 is like very problem problematic on optic fiber. And then the problem with optic fiber is it's actually getting super expensive. So and why? Because of all the data centers for AI. That's literally the same optic fiber-Noah [00:24:01]: We're running out of centersYaroslav [00:24:02]: That's being used there.Yaroslav [00:24:02]: Like when Ukrainians and Russians come to Chinese factories to buy the optic fiber, they're like, “We're out. We sold it out to the Americans.”? That's the craziest thing. So optic fiber went up in price from like, $4 per, kilometer to like, $32 per kilometer in a few months in the beginning of this year. And I'veBrandon [00:24:26]: Claude Code is stopping the Russian drone effort here.Yaroslav [00:24:30]: Ukrainian as well. Yeah.Brandon [00:24:31]: Ukrainian. But I read somewhere that the Russians had grown more dependent on fiber optic drones relative to the Ukrainians, and that's one reason why the Ukrainians have sort of regained the initiative in drones recently.Brandon [00:24:42]: How accurate's that?Yaroslav [00:24:43]: The Russians were the first ones to scale that. I think by as of now, Ukraine has caught up. I think, like, as of maybe three months ago, Ukraine is mostly caught up on fiber optic. Yeah.Brandon [00:24:57]: What percent of damage would you say is in terms of FPV drone damage would you say is now fiber optic versus, like autonomous?FPVs as the New God of War: Tanks, Artillery, and Cost per KillYaroslav [00:25:07]: For our, for our audience, I actually, I cannot answer that question. Like, it's like I know the answer, but I would not disclose that. But for our audience, I think another interesting fact is out of all the casualties on the front line Between 70 and 80% are done by FPV drones.Brandon [00:25:30]: FPV drones are the new weapon of universal weapon of warfare.Yaroslav [00:25:34]: It'sBrandon [00:25:35]: Land warfare, anywayYaroslav [00:25:35]: They used to say that artillery is a god of war because artillery used to cause, like 80% of casualties, and now On that ranking-Brandon [00:25:46]: FPVYaroslav [00:25:47]: FPV drones rule.Brandon [00:25:48]: FPV drones are the god of war.Yaroslav [00:25:51]: Sort of. Dethroned artillery. But it's not to say that artillery is not useful, is not needed. Like, all of these systems are needed. Maybe except cavalry, although Russians still use it. I know, have you seen the videos of Russians using mules and horses?Brandon [00:26:09]: What is the usefulness-Yaroslav [00:26:10]: It'Brandon [00:26:10]: Of a tank in the in the modern-Yaroslav [00:26:11]: That's where we need Greenpeace to say a word, but they're silent. Yeah.Brandon [00:26:15]: What's the use of a tank on the modern battlefield?Yaroslav [00:26:21]: It's diminishing.Brandon [00:26:22]: Diminishing.Yaroslav [00:26:22]: However, I think there might be technologies which will, revive the tank. Look, tank still provides you armor, and armor is important. Like, you still need to armor and firepower, right? Like, you can be an armor personal carrier that provides you, armor. The challenge that currently exists is armor is not very well protected against incoming drones. However, there are ways to do to protect it. We were previously talking about this before the podcast. The CEO of Rheinmetall, recently sort of ridiculed, Ukrainian drone industry, saying that like, there is nothing interesting there, no real innovation, no to stand Compared to like, Rheinmetall or Boeing, and it's all made by housewives. There was like, obviously a ton of memes about this people ridiculing the CEO of Rheinmetall. And one of the best quotes, I heard on this topic is from my friend, Alexey Babenko, who's, the head of and founder of VIARI Drone, which is one of the largest manufacturers of FPV drones. They're our partner. They're using our autonomy. So he said that the drones we manufacture in one day will be more than enough to destroy all the tanks Rheinmetall manufactures in a year.Yaroslav [00:27:52]: Then, yeah, cost-wise, of course, a drone is like, $500 and a Rheinmetall tank is what, probably 5 million-ish or maybe more.Brandon [00:28:00]: Don't mess with those housewives.Yaroslav [00:28:03]: Drone wives.Brandon [00:28:04]: Drone wives.Yaroslav [00:28:06]: That's it.Noah [00:28:06]: There's a classic saying that everyone always fights the last war.Noah [00:28:12]: Yet do How did So from your standpoint, how did we get to the point where tanks became irrelevant in at least for now In a matter of just a few years?Yaroslav [00:28:24]: Look, I think it's the same way, how do we get to the point that calculators become irrelevant?Yaroslav [00:28:31]: Now we have iPhones. Like, why would you need a calculator? Technology progresses and its influence grows non-linearly. It's all exponential. So I can tell you that full autonomy, when you put it on a drone Look, so if you, if you think about a tank and a like, it's not a direct comparison, but even, like, a drone and a artillery shell or like, sort of cost per kill, an artillery shell for 155 caliber, which is a standard NATO caliber Currently market price is about $4,000 per piece. So compare that to say, $400 per drone. That's 10 times more expensive. Account for the amortization of the artillery gun and for how vulnerable it is and what is the sort of tactical, capabilities it gives you as compared to a drone. You'll figure out that an FPV drone is maybe three orders of magnitude, more versatile, more useful, more capable than artillery and many of than a classic artillery. Many of Because there are different types of artillery. Not just, like, one 155. You have mortars, you have all that. But give or take, roughly three orders of magnitude maybe. Again, it doesn't have that firepower. It's not one-to-one comparison still.Yaroslav [00:29:53]: Now, take that FPV drone. When you put full autonomy on that FPV drone, which can be not very expensive, like systems that we're, producing are like, in hundreds of dollars of pure bombFull Autonomy: From Human Pilots to Smartphone-Directed Drone MissionsNoah [00:30:06]: Just interrupt. You said full autonomy Just a second ago you were saying that the autonomy here is guidance, right? It's not decision-making.Yaroslav [00:30:14]: No, I was I was saying that's the f-First and sort of easiest pieces of autonomy that was fielded by us. But if you, if you add full autonomy to a droneBrandon [00:30:24]: He, I think he's asking what does it can you, for the listeners, can you explain What the term full autonomy means?Yaroslav [00:30:29]: Basically, I think a good way to think about an FPV drone is like an iPhone of warfare. It's, like, very inexpensive, very mass producible, very versatile. You don't need a bunch of other things when you have a iPhone in your pocket. You don't have, need an MP3 player, you don't need a calculator, don't need other things. All right? So FPV drone is an iPhone. Or like, okay, Apple please don't sue me, is a smartphone. And then, when you add autonomy to it sort of becomes like Uber or ride sharing. Okay? So what it means is instead of actually being a trained pilot who has this complex remote controller device which requires a couple months of training to actually pilot the drone, and then having to pilot it for 30 minutes, flying towards the target, et cetera, et cetera, now you basically, you have your smartphone, you have a drone, you pick your smartphone, you say, “We are here. The bad guys are here. Go and get them.” And the drone goes up, flies in a given direction, localizes itself on the map, finds the dedicated area where they, the bad guys are supposed to be sees the bad guys, bombs them, return, like, watches, so does a damage assessment, returns back, sits down, and then you can pick it up and watch the video if you didn't have the radio link, right?Noah [00:31:59]: That's a bomber drone.Yaroslav [00:32:00]: That's full autonomy for a bomber drone, right?Noah [00:32:03]: You're saying that no human decision is made in this entire process?Brandon [00:32:06]: That's not, that's not what he's saying.Yaroslav [00:32:07]: A human decision was made at the beginning of the process-Noah [00:32:09]: I get it. I get itYaroslav [00:32:09]: The same way as you would fire an artillery.Yaroslav [00:32:12]: When you fire an artillery, you don't stop at like, 500 meters away from a target and ask it whether, you want to strike or not. That's exactly, a human decision is always made at some point. So when you do that's full autonomy, and such full autonomy is happening as we speak. And such full autonomy increases the capabilities of an FPV drone, which is already, like, three orders more powerful than an artillery shell. Full autonomy increases its capabilities by four orders of magnitude because now you can have 100 times as many people who can use it, because you don't need to train those people, and this is important. You can have 10 times, mission success rate, and you can have 10 times utility per drone because now instead of being one-way kamikaze, it's, it can be a bomber.Brandon [00:33:05]: Now wait, let's, you said 10 times mission success rate, which means that fully autonomous bomber drones succeed in their missions 10 times more often than human piloted bomber drones do. That's an important thing to know.Noah [00:33:17]: Maybe, to push back onBrandon [00:33:19]: They're super, they're superhuman. They're, they' 10X superhuman.Yaroslav [00:33:22]: They're not vulnerable to electronic warfare. They don't care about the radio horizon. They don't lose track during navigation. They are not susceptible to human error when, an artillery shell or other drone blows up besides you and you're like, “Hell no,”like, “I'm getting out of here.” Right? That doesn't happen to an autonomous drone. Like, all of those things. Like, we have, like, one of the brigades that's using our drones with just first level autonomy They literally said that their success rates-Brandon [00:33:53]: What's first level autonomy?Yaroslav [00:33:54]: First level autonomy is just the terminal guidance.Yaroslav [00:33:57]: By the way, we have video of that. We can watch that.Brandon [00:33:59]: Terminal guidance means a human gets it nearby and then the AI takes over.Yaroslav [00:34:03]: The human flies it all the way, like 30 kilometers towards the target, and obviously the target was probably given to that human by someone who's flying some ISR drone, some reconnaissance drone, right? So all the way to the target, and once you see the target from a distance of 500 meters, you do target lock, and from there drone flies autonomous. So just that feature alone, it has increased the guy's, his call sign is Grom, so it has increased his, mission success rate, like precision of mission, yeah, mission success rate from 20% to 71%, and it also increased his kill zone from three kilometers to 10 kilometers, which means there's certain area around the front line which is designated kill zone. Whenever enemy goes into that area, it's almost guaranteed to be to be destroyed by a drone. And then obviously the drones are not launched from like, the zero line. They're usually launched from like, minus 10 kilometer-Mission Success, Failure Modes, and the Five Levels of AutonomyBrandon [00:35:03]: What is a zero line?Yaroslav [00:35:05]: Zero line is sort of an imaginary line of control, of two conflicting forces.Brandon [00:35:14]: It's important to explain these things to a lot of the listeners who areYaroslav [00:35:17]: Thank you for askingBrandon [00:35:18]: Familiar with warfare.Noah [00:35:20]: Myself.Noah [00:35:20]: I'm one of those listeners.Brandon [00:35:20]: You said that level one autonomy, in other words just terminal guidance, just, like, human gets it to the finish line and then it goes over the finish line, increases mission success from 20 something percent to 71%, or something like that.Yaroslav [00:35:33]: Increases the kill zoneBrandon [00:35:34]: Increases the kill zoneYaroslav [00:35:34]: Three kilometers to 10 kilometers.Brandon [00:35:36]: Got it.Yaroslav [00:35:36]: On both parameters-Brandon [00:35:37]: What is full autonomy, dude? AndNoah [00:35:38]: Actually on real quick, can we define mission success and like, maybe in a way, what are the failure modes of missions?Brandon [00:35:44]: I have a guess what mission success is.Noah [00:35:46]: But I couldBrandon [00:35:47]: Get ‘em.Yaroslav [00:35:49]: No, but that's a very good question, in fact, because, even if you fly into the target, well, first the target can be damaged or destroyed. Those are two different modes. Then there can be different targets. A sole infantryman is one kind of target. A dugout where supposed there are some, enemies there is another kind of target, and a some mechanical equipment is another type of target. Radio emitting equipment, which, like, often, like, the targets that the military want to get more than anything else is the some enemy radio tower or something like that or some small radio dish that really makes life difficult in that area, in that combat area. So those are different targets, right? It can be destroyed, can be damaged.Then sometimes, the drone hits but doesn't explode. Like, that happens. And then, there are other failure modes. You didn't even reach the target because you were A jammed by electronic warfare; B, you lost the control over drone because of the radio horizon; C, you were jammed by a different type of electronic warfare that happens way before You hit the target area. It's, impacting your, video receiver. So like jamming on video or jamming on control are two different types of jamming. Then something malfunctioned on a drone, just a mechanical malfunction, maybe like a motor broke or like, whatever. So all of those are different failure modes. Yeah, or maybe you got lost, you're navigate navigating to your, to your target. That happens, too.Noah [00:37:41]: The Level one autonomy, basically you manage to point in a direction.Noah [00:37:49]: You go there, and then the last mile The drone taking over.Yaroslav [00:37:52]: We define this like, I define that but it sort of got picked up by the industry. We define five levels of autonomy. So level one is terminal guidance. It's what we just discussed. Level two is bombing. Level three is autonomous target detection and engagement decision. Level four is autonomous navigation. And level five is autonomous takeoff and landing.Noah [00:38:15]: Those are good things to knowYaroslav [00:38:16]: Those are five levels of autonomy. Now, if youNoah [00:38:19]: I have a question for you.Yaroslav [00:38:19]: Sorry. Like, let me finish withNoah [00:38:21]: SorryYaroslav [00:38:21]: Theoretical part.Noah [00:38:23]: What is Tesla running at right now?Yaroslav [00:38:25]: Tesla?Noah [00:38:25]: No, sorry.Yaroslav [00:38:26]: That's very good point. Like, it's exactly, it was inspired by the levels of self-driving autonomy.Noah [00:38:32]: Waymo's level five, right?Noah [00:38:35]: You just tell it where you want to go, it picks you up, and then you go there.Yaroslav [00:38:36]: I think, like, if you, if you look at the classic definitions of self-driving cars, Waymo is still, like, level four because it still requires even remote, but still, like, human control. It's like if Waymo gets in trouble, there is an operator who takes over and resolves this. So that would still be a level four. It doesn't map directly, but it's also five levels.Brandon [00:38:58]: Can I, can I interject a question here? In terms of an FPV drone that's like a suicide drone that'll just blow itself up killing something, how do what it hit? Like, does it, just transmit back, or do you sort of like, lose track of it and hope it hit? Like, what happens to that?Yaroslav [00:39:16]: That's a great question. SoBrandon [00:39:18]: You need another droneYaroslav [00:39:19]: Like, the current battlefield in Ukraine is saturated with different types of drones. So obviously you have all the FPV drones and last year alone, Ukraine manufactured about 4 million of these, and then Russia's maybe, like, 20% less than that. And for this year, the publicly voiced target was 7 million on Ukrainian side. So it's, like, serious numbers. We're getting in serious numbers here. And then besides those, there are different, reconnaissance drones, ISR as we call them, and there are sort of tactical level ISR where we, both Ukrainians and Russians usually use, Mavic, drone by DJI. And then there are a bunch of locally produced drones, which are sort of fixed wing drones that can stay in the air for much longer than Mavic, maybe, like, half an hour. And then, there are drones that can stay for many hours or even up to a day. And those drones have, are more expensive, have more expensive cameras, et cetera, et cetera. We hunt those drones that Russians launch. The Russians hunt our drones, and so on. But ideally, when you, are a group of soldiers operating an FPV, you'll have someone in your, company, or someone in your platoon who has an ISR asset that will do target designation for you. They'll say, “Oh, like, there's a Russian vehicle over there. Go and get him.”and you go there, you get it, and they're like, “Okay, confirmed.”Battlefield Surveillance and the Eight Dimensions of AutonomyBrandon [00:40:57]: Those guys are watching. They have their own drones in the sky.Yaroslav [00:40:59]: Target destroyed. They have, like, a carousel of drones because One Mavic cannot stay more than 30 minutes. ItBrandon [00:41:06]: They're constantly surveilling the battlefield.Yaroslav [00:41:07]: Almost every spot on the battlefield.Yaroslav [00:41:11]: It's not always the case. Sometimes you will not have a surveillance asset, so then you would launch another FPV just to confirm that there was a hit. Then if you see there was a hit and you're not sure if it completely destroyed, you maybe hit again for good measure.Brandon [00:41:26]: You double tap.Yaroslav [00:41:28]: That's how it works. But I was about to give you another sort of piece of taxonomy. So you have five levels of autonomy, right? Then you have sort of eight dimensions of autonomous battlefield. So what is eight dimensions? It's crucial to understand how autonomy evolves in a modern, battlefield environment. So dimension number one is level of autonomy. What are the capabilities that your asset has? Dimension number two is the platform you're operating on. So it can be a quadcopter, a fixed wing drone, different types of maybe, like, a long range drone or short range drone, but it can also be a missile. You can have autonomy even on an artillery shell or a ground vehicle or a sea vehicle. So all of those are different platforms. Level three would be domain. So it's ground to ground or ground to air as an intersection, or ground to sea or sea to air. They're all, like, all the nuances with different domains. Then level four, would be higher levels of autonomy, such as swarming, drone carriers, drone nests, et cetera.Brandon [00:42:39]: Now when you're saying level, you're talking about dimensions, not about-Yaroslav [00:42:42]: Sorry. YeahBrandon [00:42:43]: Autonomy levels. So dimension four.Yaroslav [00:42:43]: The dimension. Yeah, I used to say I was supposed to say dimension. I say dimension because each of them works with another, right? So you might have, like third level autonomy, fixed wing drone operating in land to air, and stuff like that right? And then operating in a swarm or operating from a nest. Right? Then you have, sort of dimension number five is environment. So is it day or night? Is it summer or winter? Is it, humid, cold, dry? What kind of target is it? Is your target hiding in a forest, or is it, behind a hill or within buildings? So all of that is environment. Then you have, dimension number six is command and control. How are you dealing with or like, tens of thousands of those assets around the battlefield? How are you coordinating that on the higher levels of command? How are you collecting data? All that.Yaroslav [00:43:44]: Dimension number seven would be infrastructure, so things like simulation, data collection tools, security, deployment mechanisms, et cetera. So all those systems have to be developed separately and integrate with all the others. And finally, dimension number eight is sort of distribution. Have you deployed 100 of these systems or 100,000 of these systems? Because those are two very different ballgames. So that now gives you a more broad overview of how autonomy propagates across the battle space.Targeting, Human Responsibility, and Rules of EngagementNoah [00:44:23]: As someone who has done machine learning and had gone out of distribution and had things, go horribly wrong, you were talking several of these, kind of axes of thinking about drone warfare seem like they could be very susceptible to some sort of distribution shift if you start making things autonomous.Yaroslav [00:44:41]: Like what?Noah [00:44:41]: I mean Well, first ofYaroslav [00:44:43]: If the I'm very interested Sort of sort of kinds of scenarios that you're thinking about.Noah [00:44:48]: Like the most obvious one is you, if I assume these are computer vision guided systems for at least the last mile, how do you ensure that oh, well, like you now have some fog roll in or something, and you, the drones just attack the wrong thing? Or maybe, it probably will not turn around and fly back and attack you, but youYaroslav [00:45:10]: Same, the same, the same question, how do you ensure that your mortar fire hits the right thing? Well, it's like mortar fire, give or take half a kilometer could be plus or minus. So maybe you fire one, and then you fire another. So drones are actually, much better in being precise in those scenarios. And I think, to your point, I think five to 10 years from now it will be immoral to use weapons without AI.Yaroslav [00:45:44]: ‘Cause weapons without AI will be more likely to cause, collateral damage or unwanted damage. Same way, it will be immoral to drive your own car manually on a public road because it's more likely to cause, unwanted damage.Noah [00:46:02]: Wow, I never considered that mightBrandon [00:46:04]: Really? That's definitely coming.Yaroslav [00:46:07]: Anyway.Brandon [00:46:07]: No, but that' I don't know, it's an obvious, an obvious thought. I agree with you.Brandon [00:46:12]: I, No, they, obviously they're not going to let you drive once most of the cars on the road are autonomous.Noah [00:46:17]: No, that one, don't I believe.Yaroslav [00:46:19]: No, I think you were you were talking about drones, right?Brandon [00:46:21]: The drones, right. Cool.Yaroslav [00:46:22]: The weapons, right?Brandon [00:46:23]: Friendly fire and collateral damage and stuff like that is all minimized with AI.Brandon [00:46:27]: Here's my question. Take all let's go to level six autonomy. Let's take all of the target selection. Let's take all the battlefield data, integrate it into one big AI, and have that big AI basically be in command of the battlefield And agentically do target selection.Yaroslav [00:46:44]: Be the general, right?Brandon [00:46:44]: It's a general. It's, you've cut humans out of the loop except maybe as dexterous robots, repairing drones and fastening things to drones or maybe something like that because you don't have those robots yet. How soon are we there? AI general.Yaroslav [00:46:58]: The most important thing to ask ourselves is who will be faster to that us or our adversaries?Brandon [00:47:07]: I assume us, but how fast will we be to that? I hope us.Yaroslav [00:47:11]: I hope so too.Brandon [00:47:12]: How fast can we Like when are we looking at that in terms of like horizons years?Yaroslav [00:47:18]: Like technically, it could be done now. The question is of course, there's, some engineering work to be done. The bigger challenge is deployment. Right? So okay, technically Like operation in Iran, right? They, the publicly, it was claimed that I think Palantir system was used for target designation, et cetera, et cetera. So it is not exactly as you say, the AI makes all the decisions, but basically AI goes through all the data you have, gives you these 1,027 different targets and says, “You-- To confirm, please press Okay.” And you look at the targets and you're like, “Yeah, sounds right. Press Okay.”so that's, I think that's where we are now already, or we were a couple weeks ago as we're recording this on April 10th. Another question is how massively deployable it is. Is it, like, every decision being made like that or is it, like, just some of the decisions made like that? And then different levels of command and control. There you have, like, the platoon, the company level, the battalion, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But the tricky thing here when we get into that territory, the tricky thing is If your enemy is getting advantage of being Thousand times faster than yourself by deploying such systems What do you do?Yaroslav [00:49:10]: You got to-Brandon [00:49:12]: The if the enemy is a thousand times faster than you at deploying those systems?Yaroslav [00:49:16]: Like, if enemy starts deploying level six autonomy, as you call And you have not started doingBrandon [00:49:22]: You're in troubleYaroslav [00:49:23]: Yes, exactly. So you have to catch up. So my point is that it is very important to think about the safety of these systems, but that thinking should not slow you down in developing them because they are critical for your existential, survival, right? And like, one person who doesn't think, doesn't get to think about the ethics of the war is a dead person. That person surely doesn't get to think about that.Brandon [00:49:52]: What would be the safety risk of such a system?Yaroslav [00:49:55]: Of course-Brandon [00:49:56]: Friendly fire?Yaroslav [00:49:56]: Just wrong decisions, right?Brandon [00:49:59]: I see.Yaroslav [00:49:59]: Maybe, these decisions-AI Command Decisions, Dead Zones, and Complex BattlefieldsBrandon [00:50:06]: Skynet AI decides it's going to useYaroslav [00:50:08]: No, these-Brandon [00:50:08]: Drone army to kill usYaroslav [00:50:09]: Decisions will not only be made about drones. They are likely to made about what the humans should do on your side as well. Then obviously some environments are more like Ukrainian-Russian war, where you haveBrandon [00:50:26]: It will have to choose to risk lives. It will have to choose to sacrifice human lives-Yaroslav [00:50:28]: Of courseBrandon [00:50:29]: On your side.Yaroslav [00:50:29]: Of course. And then some environments are just, like, dead, like, dead zones and there are no civilians there, or virtually no civilians close to the front line because, like, super dangerous. Everyone has evacuated from there. But there are other environments which are more like, okay, there's a counterterrorist operation. There's, like, a group of terrorists or a group of civilians. Or like, it's like the recent operations in Iran, I imagine that the US and Israeli forces do not want to harm civilians. They only targeted the military targets there, right? So in those situations, it's a different level of responsibility for that decision-making as well. And then there is just such a big variety of those military missions, and I'm not even, like, well-informed or well-educated in military science to tell you about all those scenarios. We would need to put some general besides me, and maybe a Ukraine general and American general would have told you very different stories about these things.Brandon [00:51:34]: Got it. Can I ask a few more questions? All right. So in 2013, I wrote one of my first, paid articles ever was about how the era of drones will change human society. I was just sitting around bored thinking about things.Yaroslav [00:51:54]: You were way ahead of your time.Brandon [00:51:55]: I said, I said, “The following will happen.”Yaroslav [00:51:57]: It's, this article is real. I've read it.Yaroslav [00:51:58]: It's actually-Brandon [00:51:59]: I said small autonomous, suicide drones, will cleanse the battlefield of human infantry. Human infantry will not be able to stand against swarms of AI-powered, suicide drones. That was I didn't even know about, like, AlexNet at the time, I think.Yaroslav [00:52:19]: You're just an avid sci-fi reader.Brandon [00:52:23]: I'm an avid sci-fi reader, but also, like, it's not Like, there will be a way to do that. It's a it's a nonlinear multidimensional search problem, and you get enough compute, you'll find some search algorithm that will get you there. And soBrandon [00:52:38]: I, yeah, I think that one sentence describes the bitter lesson right there.Brandon [00:52:41]: It's just like it's a multidimensional search space. You search it somehow. I don't know. Figure out some get a grad student-Yaroslav [00:52:47]: Sooner or laterBrandon [00:52:47]: To make a search algorithm.Brandon [00:52:48]: It's not that hard. Anyway, so but then, but I guess the point is The point is that human infantry on the battlefield will be will be gone at the end. I wrote that in 2013. Many people on social media laughed at me for that called me hysterical, said things like, “Electronic warfare will knock all the drones out of the sky.”like, “You need humans to hold ground.”that's something you still hear from a lot of people on social media today. I feel that this article that I've written has never been directionally wrong. It has gotten more and more right steadily over time, and that we're very reading the battlefield reports from Ukraine, where, human infantry are basically guy, like a few guys hiding in dugouts for months, and I'm not sure what they're doing.Yaroslav [00:53:35]: That's on Ukraine's side. On the Russian side, that's just like a zerg rush.Brandon [00:53:38]: The zerg rush, and then they just die. Then, but they have some guys in dugouts too, right? Like hiding in dugouts for months.Yaroslav [00:53:45]: They have. Yeah.Brandon [00:53:45]: Like, but that like, what are those guys doing in the dugouts? Are providing, like, frontline, like, reconnaissance? Like, what are they doing?Yaroslav [00:53:54]: If there is a guy in a dugout with some bullets and automatic weapon, the other guy cannot come and take the that dugout. That'Brandon [00:54:07]: I seeYaroslav [00:54:08]: They are they're establishing control over territory.Brandon [00:54:10]: I see. So that is so there still is a use for human infantry on the battlefield as of today.Yaroslav [00:54:15]: LikeBrandon [00:54:15]: How long will that last?Yaroslav [00:54:17]: I think it will last for a while. This is funny. There's this whole Layer of the modern culture, a modern Ukraine culture built around the war-related stuff. So there is this -Punk rock band, that is called SZC, I guess in English that would be. Which stands short for like a deserter or something like that. So anyhow, this band has a song titled “2030.” It's basically about the year 2030, and the war still goes on as like the whatever, third world war or whatever. And they basically, they, sang about the AI and like cyborgs and everything, but the simple infantry is still needed, and we're still, like, getting cold in those dugouts, and we're still doing our job. That's sort of the theme of the song. And it seems like that's actually what's going to happen. There areGround Robots, Simulation, and the Limits of World ModelsBrandon [00:55:30]: Ground robots will not replace humans in the dugouts soon.Yaroslav [00:55:34]: I'm very much interested in following the whole humanoid robot theme andBrandon [00:55:39]: What about like a dog robot?Noah [00:55:41]: Or just mobile controlled platforms or something.Brandon [00:55:44]: Spider robot, yeah.Brandon [00:55:45]: Everything evolves into a crab.Brandon [00:55:46]: You build a crab robot.Yaroslav [00:55:47]: A humanoid-Noah [00:55:48]: The carcinization of warfare.Yaroslav [00:55:51]: There is a lot of utility in humanoid robots because the world is designed around humanoids. So I would not, like, 100% disqualify the possibility that sometimes 10 years in the future, humanoid robots, will be actually fighting. So that's an actual Terminator kind of scenario.Brandon [00:56:14]: Yeah, in the first Terminator movie, you look at what they've got on the battlefield, they've got flying bomber drones and humanoid robots.Yaroslav [00:56:20]: Look, the cost of large language models of running them is getting so low, you can have basically an inexpensive computer running, what was a state-of-the-art model a year and a half ago, running it locally on a device with an open source model, which also means that the Chinese can have it, the Russians can have it, the North Koreans can have it, et cetera. So that is already possible. And with when we're looking at the acceleration of the neural nets, I would've, if not the acceleration of the large language models, I would've said that I don't think that humanoid robots will be able to be useful in the battlefield earlier than in 10 years. But if you account for the exponential, it might be five years or so. The problem with all of the autonomous systems, and it's like starts with self-driving cars and even with all the AI, like modern day AI agents, to make them really, useful, you have to solve such a long tail of edge cases, that it's really difficult to make them useful. Like we were promised, self-driving cars, what, like 2007, Sebastian Thrun and Google, and even before that all the challenges, everything. And Elon of course told us it's going to be one year from 2014, and now we still don't have self-driving Teslas everywhere. We have Waymos in SF and some other places, but they're still, like, not perfect. So I think, I expect something similar from self-flying drones and fully autonomous drones, and we saw that firsthand as with each level of autonomy that we're adding, there is a very wide distance between a prototype and something that is ready to be scaled to millions of units and something that has been scaled to millions of units. But the race with like AI coding tools is just insane. So things might accelerate very fast, faster than we can imagine.Noah [00:58:46]: I think your point is that with due to this long tail behavior Level one autonomy as you've defined it, is actually very natural. Like you basically are just solving an image recognition and tracking system.Yaroslav [00:59:02]: It's actually interesting that you say it that way, and I thought about this the very same way, and we have this joke that there are like 200 companies in Ukraine which are trying to solve last mile, targeting or terminal guidance. It seems like we're like the only company that actually solved that because even that problem-Noah [00:59:22]: I'm not saying it's, I'm not saying it's trivial, but it's at least something that you imagine given our current state.Yaroslav [00:59:26]: Like us and Eric Schmidt, like Eric Schmidt's companies are pretty good.Yaroslav [00:59:29]: Like, I actually have lots of respect to what they're doing, and they're, they have been practically influential and helpful on the battlefield, and they have good engineering.Noah [00:59:38]: I wasn't, I wasn't saying it's trivial. I'm just saying this is a something naturally adaptive based upon things that we know work, well. But some of the other domains that where you do have to make decisions and you have a long tail become much harder, and you worry about edge cases more.Yaroslav [00:59:57]: Like the more, the more complex behavior you're trying to simulate, the more edge cases there are right? The more ways to do it wrong there are. And then there are different approaches. It's like if you think about, if you read academic papers about robotics, right? You sort of the robot is represented as something that has the sort of sensor input, and then you have three, levels of sort of logics or decision-making, which are perception, planning, and control, and then you have actuators as output.So pre-neural nets, you would do perception output and control all with classic logics, right? Then, with AlexNet and computer vision, you could do perception with neural nets and the rest with logic. You cannot currently do each of those separately with neural nets, each of those separately with logics, or you can just have one huge neural net that just takes lots of sensory data. It's not just pixels. Could be sound, could be accelerometer, could be everything, as input, and just outputs the controls. And some of the self-driving car companies are doing that or like, experimenting between different ways of doing that. So you can also, like, think about that and the way you implement those features, also influences how much degrees of freedom the system would have, right? Like control, you can do it classical algorithmic control with common filters and PAD filter, PAD controllers, et cetera, or you can do a neural net, that was trained in a gym with a reinforcement learning, et cetera. And those would be two different behaviors of a system.Noah [01:01:53]: I-- Maybe my point was just much more high level. It'Yaroslav [01:01:56]: Or you can If you go even like, if you go high level, you can, you can like train to like have whatever, like Feifei Li and folks who are doing like physical, sortBrandon [01:02:08]: World modelsYaroslav [01:02:08]: World models, right, physical intelligence, they're trying to make these big models and sort of understand the world and then supposedly you have such model and you can tell a drone, “Okay, like, go over that hill and like, find the bad guys and then get them,”or “Make me a video, make me a photo of the guy smiling and get back to me.” Right? That's one way. Another way you have like these subsystems, like one is navigation, another is finding the person, another is like getting to them to take a photo. And those are again, very different behaviors. And then it's not that one is necessarily better than the other, and we might have more technological ability to do one or another. But all of those systems will exist. And then again, you should always keep in mind that it's only the not only the good guys that are developing these systems, the bad guys are developing these systems as well.China's Drone Supply Chain and the West's Manufacturing GapNoah [01:03:00]: I guess where I'm going with this back to Noah's original thought with the end of the end of the soldier. And so in order to replace-Brandon [01:03:10]: Or at least the end of the rifleman.Noah [01:03:11]: Or the end of the rifleman, yeah.Yaroslav [01:03:13]: I'm not seeing that very close, and it was like I'm, as much as I'm a lover of sci-fi and all of that and a technologist, the more I try to beYaroslav [01:03:27]: Like the I try to have certain humility about these things, and like the military, domain and there was just so much human history and blood and tears, dedicated to sort of understanding this art of war and perfecting it and so on. There is so much knowledge in there that I don't feel like I even started to comprehend, a lot of that. But one thing that I really understood is that even though drones are now making eighty percent of the casualties, you go to the actual officers, you talk to the actual, like, brigade commanders, corps commanders, and they explain to you, how all of it fits together, how when you're thinking about an operation that involves a couple thousand people to get this piece of land, out of the enemy's hands, deoccu deoccupy it, how it is so complex, it involves, dozens of different types of drones and then land operations and reconnaissance operations, psychological operations and then aviations and tanks and logistics and all kinds of these different assets. So modern warfare is really very complex, and the fact that the drones are the latest, coolest thing, and then the AI is latest, coolest thing, doesn't mean that now it's that and only that right? So yeah. Whoever's looking into that I think should realize that it's not just what the press talks about, that the reality is much more difficult, much more complex.Brandon [01:05:17]: Let's talk about China and China's manufacturing capabilities. So suppose that someone, like suppose the United States went to war with China. AndYaroslav [01:05:26]: I hope not.Brandon [01:05:27]: I hope not as well. And then but suppose that drones were very essential to that war of all the types of drones that we're talking about here, and that suppose that China said, “All right, well, you need X and Y and Z, to make those drones to fight us, and we control the production of X and Y and Z, so we're just going to cut you right off, and now you have no drones.”Brandon [01:05:47]: I know that a number of countries, including Ukraine and Taiwan, have been making moves to China-proof their drone productions that China couldn't do that. Examples of things they might be able to cut off might include rare earths, fiber optic cable that you were talking about before, various other things that where even if they don't control one hundred percent of the production, they control enough of the production that would be extremely expensive to produce it without relying on Chinese sources. Or the market's fragmented enough, et cetera. What do you see as China's key bottlenecks, and how easy are those to overcome in terms of China-proofing drone production in case of a war against China?Yaroslav [01:06:30]: Let me start with a saying that -Although China does not sell directly to Ukraine and it does sell directly to Russia, a lot of Ukrainian supply chains, they start in China, right?Yaroslav [01:06:49]: We're not in a conflict with China, and we would not want to be in a conflict with China. And we'd hope that China stays a neutral power between Ukraine and Russia and the US as well. That said, the scenario that you're describing, everything is much worse.Yaroslav [01:07:11]: Think about this. Last year, Ukraine produced four million FPV drones. Ukraine is not the most industrious nation in the world.Yaroslav [01:07:19]: China can produce four billion of these FPV drones.Yaroslav [01:07:23]: China can make them not drones with propellers, but fixed-wing drones, which go not forty kilometers far, but maybe two to three hundred kilometers inland.

In this episode, Jared & Stephen discuss DJI and GoPro's latest offerings in the form of the new Osmo Pocket 4 gimbal camera and GoPro's new mission 1 series action cameras, how Coachella is the new "Influencer Olympics," more details about the cameras that were tested for the Artemis program that WEREN'T Nikon's & more! Text us with any thoughts and questions regarding this episode at 313-710-9729. This is RAWtalk Episode 193!

DJI released the Osmo Pocket 4 that brings better low light performance and a clip-on fill light, and Andy Beach tells us about an AI Licensing deal in the works for 2,200 publishers.Starring Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao,, and Andy Beach.Show notes found here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.