The Trump administration on Tuesday banned imports of new Chinese-made humanoid and quadruped robots, as well as connected power inverters, in a move aimed at shielding U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure and critical energy systems from what it called national security threats.
The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday afternoon released the measures, which bar Chinese imports of new humanoid and quadruped robots, in addition to connected power inverters, which enable renewable energy sources and batteries to connect to grids and data center equipment.
The restrictions, as first reported by Reuters, show the Trump administration is aiming to safeguard the U.S. artificial intelligence supply chain from Chinese threats of disruption, data theft and cyberattacks, while also driving firms to shift manufacturing to the U.S.
"These devices could create supply chain vulnerabilities that could disrupt U.S. economic and national security and could create a cybersecurity risk that threatened American critical infrastructure," the FCC said in a statement. "The FCC will continue to do our part to secure America’s critical supply chains," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr added in the press release.
