The Trump administration on Tuesday announced a ban on new foreign-made humanoid robot imports to the US over “unacceptable risks” to the country’s national security.<\/p>\n
The move applies to advanced robots – including humanoid and four-legged machines. Many of them are made in China, which is locked in a race with the US to develop robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also banned the import of power inverters – a device used in data centres and solar panels – which it said could also pose a risk to the US economy.<\/p>\n
FCC chairman Brendan Carr said the agency was doing its part “to secure America’s critical supply chains”.<\/p>\n
The BBC has contacted the Chinese embassy in Washington as well as major Chinese robot manufacturers Unitree, UBTech and AgiBot.<\/p>\n
The FCC has added the items to its Covered List – a register of goods and services that are deemed a risk to US national security. <\/p>\n
The ban applies to new foreign-produced advanced robotic devices and power inverters and does not prevent the sale or import of any existing models that had been previously authorised by the FCC.<\/p>\n
The FCC cited concerns that the use of foreign-made inverters could allow overseas firms to turn them off, steal data, facilitate remote access and surveillance by “foreign government actors, or be otherwise exploited through a cyberattack.”<\/p>\n
It added that the use of robots made outside the US could allow “malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots.”<\/p>\n
Chinea’s exports have come under intense scrutiny by the US as the Trump administration attempts to address trade imbalances with the world’s second largest economy.<\/p>\n
Despite being the world’s biggest exporter of electric vehicles, China has been effectively shut out of the American market by a 100% tariff.<\/p>\n
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also warned that Chinese AI firms could face sanctions over allegations that they have stolen American intellectual property.<\/p>\n
In response the Chinese government has said its country’s development of AI was “the result of its own dedication and effort as well as international cooperation”.<\/p>\n
Chinese technology firms have rapidly developed humanoid robots to be used in settings including factories and homes.<\/p>\n
Companies have also been quick to market their machines to businesses and the public ahead of US humanoid robot rivals like Elon Musk’s Tesla and Boston Dynamics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration on Tuesday announced a ban on new foreign-made humanoid robot imports to the US over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-716377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}