“The Federal Trade Commission last week issued a sweeping ban on foreign imports of advanced humanoid, quadruped, and wheeled robots, pulling a nascent industry into the same protectionist bracket as chips and AI models………90% of recent US university robotics research papers relied on Unitree robots, per the Association for Advancing Automation.”

It’s fine to want to counter Chinese industrial dominance, but is this the cleverest way to do it?

• It will do nothing to slow or stop Chinese robotics. The US is only 14% of Chinese exports these days. The Chinese economy doesn’t need America the way it used to.

• The same measures with AI sped up Chinese AI development, not hindered it.

• China’s great advantage is a vast manufacturing/industrial hinterland that facilitates startups and development. That is what Europe & the US need to try to replicate.

• China has also joined-up thinking and long-term plans stretching over decades. Bans don’t supply those benefits either.

FTC bans foreign humanoid robots, extending AI protectionism to robotics