Anthropic · Claude · FCC · Donald Trump · MIT Technology Review
Trump’s AI protectionism has come for robotics
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This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, their weekly newsletter on AI.
Key facts
- A comparable one from Boston Dynamics might run to $278,000
- Such a move would block businesses from realizing an estimated $25 billion in annual savings
- Unitree plans to go public this week, targeting a nearly $6 billion evaluation
- Figure’s humanoids are not yet selling at scale, and 1X’s robots aren’t yet shipping to homes
Summary
Humanoid robots usually elicit more cringe than awe: They stumble, kick children, and despite advances are still worse at using their hands than their toddler. It was a surprise, then, when last week the Federal Communications Commission issued a sweeping ban on foreign imports of advanced robots, including humanoids, quadrupeds, and wheeled robots. On its face, it’s a strategy to align political and industry interests that is much older than the Trump administration. But robotics is now best seen as another piece of the AI industry—in many ways its cutting edge. The ban on humanoids, then, should be understood not as another chapter in the old China trade playbook, but as evidence that the Trump administration is expanding its protection of the AI industry beyond today’s leading labs.