Decades after it was first developed for military use, GPS is ubiquitous to the point that most people don't go an hour without using it in some way. The policies that govern this influential technology have evolved over all those years, as documented in a recent paper by Aerospace's Brian Weeden — and discussed in a new Federal News Network podcast.

Weeden, Systems Director at the Center for Space Policy and Strategy, describes GPS as a "global utility," but it wasn't always that way.

"Yes, it has evolved into this global utility. What I talk about in the paper is that, in large part, that is because of some policy decisions that were made across multiple U.S. administrations, which opened up GPS to a lot of non-military uses," Weeden explained to FNN's Terry Gerton.

"One of the reasons I looked into GPS was to learn more about how we do decisions on dual-use technology, because the lessons from things like GPS are applicable to cryptography— they’re applicable to a whole range of other technologies," he said. "I think one of the big things to keep in mind as we look back at this history is when you have something that has many uses, there’s a lot of stakeholders or constituencies that want to have a say in the process."

GPS, like other technologies, has led to unforeseen opportunities, but also potential threats. But it isn't really the job of the technologist or policymaker to anticipate these, Weeden says. Instead, the most important thing is to collect, integrate, and harmonize varying viewpoints — even if they are conflicting.

In the case of GPS, the military wanted to limit civilian use by introducing uncertainty to the signal, while the FAA wanted the undiluted signal to improve civilian airline safety. Observing and analyzing the process of weighing those needs and working with different stakeholders provides important lessons for how to treat other emerging technologies, like AI.

Read the full paper here, and listen to the podcast below or at FNN's website.