Much like the accountants and audit standards that safeguard financial systems, the generative AI universe needs an ecosystem of organizations, rules and people to oversee the technology and ensure it works as promised, NTIA Director Alan Davidson said during a talk Thursday at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Davidson said the federal government is sorely lacking in the technical expertise it needs to wrestle with AI-related policy questions. While the government's technical knowledge is improving, "a huge gap" remains, Davidson said. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said Thursday that the U.S. is falling behind other nations in AI policy development (see 2409120035).
Patti Kukula, executive director of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, withdrew a filing at the FCC made in August opposing FirstNet control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2408290015). The filing "is not reflective” of the foundation’s “position or stance on this public safety communications matter,” said the new filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100. “The submission of the Foundation’s original filing did not adhere to our organization’s process for review,” Kukula said. The foundation was “operating on an incomplete set of facts regarding this regulatory proceeding and a mistaken assumption regarding the proposal.”
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. Lawsuits added since the last update are marked with an *.
The growing pace of launches in the U.S. is stressing launch site capabilities, particularly Florida's Cape Canaveral, launch operators said Wednesday at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce aerospace conference in Washington. Meanwhile, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said SpaceX could pose a monopolistic threat in commercial space and that more competition is needed. In addition, the FAA was criticized for its launch regulatory regime.
Radio station operator Beasley Broadcast Group's debt restructuring plan will mean lenders end up with less than originally promised, S&P said Tuesday as it lowered its issuer credit rating on Beasley to CC from CCC+. It said that when restructuring is done, it expects to lower its issuer credit rating on the company to selective default. Under the debt restructuring plan announced last week, Beasley will exchange notes due in 2026 for notes due in August 2028, repurchase up to $68 million of its 2026 notes and issue $30 million in notes due in 2028. S&P said the new debt's higher interest rates don't appear to be adequate compensation to the company's lenders.
Under a draft FCC order tackling robocalls and robotexts, related issues will need addressing before consumers will trust telecom networks again. The FCC released the draft Thursday, along with an order on using 17 GHz spectrum for satellite broadband and an order and a Further NPRM on accessibility in videoconferencing. Commissioners are set to consider the items at their Sept. 26 open meeting.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. Lawsuits added since the last update are in bold.
The FCC will vote this month on providing spectrum for satellite broadband and accessibility in videoconferencing, according to a note from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday. The Sept. 26 open meeting will also include items on expanding robocall protections and allowing increased power for digital FM stations, along with seven enforcement items, the note said. The agency typically doesn’t provide information about enforcement items on the agenda until those items have been voted on.
The White House Office of the National Cyber Director released guidance Tuesday, dubbing it a "roadmap," addressing "key vulnerabilities" in border gateway protocol (BGP) security. ONCD urged "every network operator use a risk-based approach to address BGP vulnerabilities" through the adoption of resource public key infrastructure (RPKI), which includes route origin authorization and origination, calling it a "mature, ready-to-implement approach to mitigate BGP’s vulnerabilities."
TikTok engages in “expressive activity” when its algorithm curates content. Accordingly, the platform can’t claim Section 230 immunity from liability when that content harms users, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday (docket 22-3061). A three-judge panel remanded a district court decision dismissing a lawsuit from a mother of a 10-year-old TikTok user who unintentionally hung herself after watching a “Blackout Challenge” video on the platform. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed the case, holding TikTok was immune under Communications Decency Act Section 230. The Third Circuit reversed in part, vacated in part and remanded the case back to the district court. Judge Patty Schwarz wrote the opinion, citing U.S. Supreme Court findings about “expressive activity” in Moody v. NetChoice (see 2402270072). SCOTUS found that “expressive activity includes presenting a curated compilation of speech originally created by others.” Schwarz noted the court’s holding that a platform algorithm reflects “editorial judgments” about compiling third-party speech and amounts to an “expressive product” that the First Amendment protects. This protected speech can also be considered “first-party” speech under Section 230, said Schwarz. According to the filing, 10-year-old Nylah Anderson viewed the Blackout Challenge on her “For You Page,” which TikTok curates for each individual user. Had Anderson viewed the challenge through TikTok’s search function, TikTok could have been viewed as more of a “repository of third-party content than an affirmative promoter of such content,” Schwarz wrote. Tawainna Anderson, the child’s mother who filed the suit, claims the company knew about the challenge, allowed users to post videos of themselves participating in it and promoted videos to children via an algorithm. The company didn’t comment.