In the U.S., according to industry officials, the Federal Communications Commission's reluctance to authorize sales of hardware able to disrupt radio links has hobbled growth of the nascent counterdrone industry. Only a handful of U.S. airports have advanced drone-detection programs under way, according to industry officials, and nearly all are in the testing phase. Congress, however, has instructed the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a strategy to permit wide use of counterdrone technologies across airports. Sponsors of major sports events, some concerts and large open-air gatherings, including the New Year's Eve celebration in New York's Times Square, have called on counterdrone techniques to ensure safety. But like most airports, such entities generally refrain from publicly spelling out their plans.

The Internet of Things (IoT) didn't just create smart houses and enable predictive analytics for industrial applications. Sometimes, all those things happen at once. At least, that's my takeaway from a new partnership between AT&T and Dedrone, a drone detection technology startup based in San Francisco. According an AT&T spokesperson, "AT&T and Dedrone are teaming up to deploy IoT sensor technology to protect against malicious drones. Powered exclusively by AT&T, and using sensor data like radio frequency, visual, and radar, Dedrone detects and classifies approaching drones, pinpointing their locations and triggering alarms to alert security."

AT&T* and Dedrone, a San Francisco-based drone detection technology startup, are teaming up on a drone detection solution that helps protect military bases, venues, cities, and businesses, from malicious drones. As drones become more prominent, so does the misuse of the emerging technology. According to the Federal Aviation Administration¹, people purchased roughly 3 million drones worldwide in 2017. More than 1 million drones have been registered in the U.S. This creates a new avenue and threat vector for the community.

He estimates that he talks or texts, on average, with each CEO in his portfolio three or four times a week. He visits potential customers with Jörg Lamprecht, CEO of Dedrone, a 75-employee drone-security firm. "It's not about the investments," Mr. Chambers says about his portfolio. "I want to first be a strategic partner with the CEO, where I am his or her most trusted adviser, mentor--a coach." Mr. Chambers is part of a wave of big-time CEOs and executives who, instead of more conventional retirements of just sitting on a couple of big-company boards, are embarking on second chapters as guiding lights on the startup scene.

Or is it a remotely operated quadrotor conducting surveillance or preparing to drop a deadly payload? Human observers won't have to guess--or keep their eyes glued to computer monitors--now that there's superhuman artificial intelligence capable of distinguishing drones from those other flying objects. Automated watchfulness, thanks to machine learning, has given police and other agencies tasked with maintaining security an important countermeasure to help them keep pace with swarms of new drones taking to the skies. The security challenge has only grown over the past few years: Millions of people have bought consumer drones and sometimes flown them into off limits areas where they pose a hazard to crowds on the ground or larger aircraft in the sky. Off-the-shelf drones have also become affordable and dangerous weapons for the Islamic State and other militant groups in war-torn regions such as Iraq and Syria.

CloudMinds, a Chinese startup developing cloud-intelligence-based services for robotics and other application areas, raised $100 million in a Series A funding round. Although no funder information was provided, seed financing was provided by SoftBank, Foxconn, Walden International and Keytone Ventures. Desktop Metal, a 3D metal printing startup based in Burlington, Mass., is gearing up to take its first product into production and raised $45 million from GV, BMW I Ventures and Lowe's Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $97 million. Other investors include NEA, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lux Capital, GE Ventures, Saudi Aramco, and Stratasys.