WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has authorized the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer said Friday, as the two nations' leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting. India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year. The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. The offer is still subject to congressional approval. The green light from the administration marks a further deepening in defense ties before India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. Modi's two-day visit to Washington, which starts Sunday, takes place amid uncertainty over the relationship because of differences on trade and other issues.

FILE - In this June 2, 2017, file photo Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Trump administration is set to authorize the sale of surveillance drones to India as the two nations' leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting on June 26. That's according to a congressional aide and an industry representative speaking to The Associated Press.

The multi-level tower allows drones a place to take off and land. Welcome to the drone hive. Amazon has applied for a patent that gives more insight into the infrastructure it may be planning for its drone delivery program, Amazon Prime Air. In this case, the drones would take off, land and pick up deliveries from a tower placed in densely populated cities that would house the drones. It looks a lot like a bee hive.

While you might expect a hive to be full of bees, a new patent filed by Amazon suggests that giant versions of the structures could soon be used to house drones. A patent published today shows a nine-story hive with space for hundreds of drones. While Amazon has not said when, or if, it plans to create the hives, the patent suggests that they could be used in'downtown districts' or'urban areas' where there is little space to build outwards. While you might expect a hive to be full of bees, a new patent filed by Amazon suggests that giant versions of the structures could soon be used to house drones. The hive is designed to accomodate landing and takeoff of unmanned aerial vehicles in urban settings.

Patents don't mean anything right up until the moment that they mean everything, so take it as read that none of this could happen. Amazon has, however, registered a patent for a concept that it's calling a "Multi-Level Fulfillment Center for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles." Which is a fancy way of saying that it wants to build enormous cylindrical warehouses at the heart of towns and cities. Rather than delivery folks driving parcels to your home, the building will be jam-packed with drones, which fill fly in and out of the location's many windows. As much of an eyesore as it would be, Amazon's idea does solve a few fairly obvious problems with being a logistics company in a city. After all, warehouse space requires plenty of land, which is at a premium in a dense urban environment.

Advances in robotics and AI have led to modern commercial drone technology, which is changing the fundamental way enterprises interact with the world. They enable companies to combine the power of scalable computing resources with pervasive, affordable sensors that can go anywhere. This creates an environment in which businesses can make quick, accurate decisions based on enormous datasets derived from the physical world.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich says drones will play a vital role showing action at the Olympics. The Olympic Games don't just attract the world's best athletes, they're also a platform for emerging technologies like virtual reality, 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence and drones. Tech giant Intel said Wednesday it's now an official worldwide partner of the games through 2024. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and International Olympics Committee President Thomas Bach signed off on the deal during an event in New York. The new deal will begin during the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February, where 16 events will be shown through Intel's True VR.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump offered support for emerging technologies including unmanned aerial vehicles and next-generation wireless networks in a meeting on Thursday with the chiefs of AT&T Inc and General Electric Co and other business leaders.

NEW YORK – Intel Corp. will sponsor the Olympics through 2024 in the company's latest bid to show off its technology through high-profile sports events. The chipmaker said it will partner with the International Olympic Committee to use Intel's technology, such as virtual reality, 360-degree video, artificial intelligence and drones, to enhance the Olympic Games. Intel is signing on at a time when global interest in the Olympics is waning. Television ratings have fallen, and cities have dropped out of the running to host the games as costs spiral. Yet for Intel, the sponsorship is part of a broad push into sports after it launched a group to explore such deals last fall, seeking to highlight initiatives other than its main computer processor business.

Since Trump's election on an "American First" platform, U.S. and Indian officials have sought to play down any contradiction between his stated desire to protect American jobs and Modi's "Make in India" policy, arguing, for example, that deals in which components made in the United States are shipped to India for assembly benefit workers in both countries.