China's advancements in "humanoid robots" pose a significant threat to both Americans' privacy and the country's global, technological competitiveness, a senator has warned.
Beijing's is accelerating efforts to manufacture robots possessing personal, industrial and military applications. However, the country's advantage over the U.S. in the field has raised concerns about their potential use for espionage, commercial sabotage, and other malicious activities.
"Congress must act to prevent products manufactured by adversarial regimes, especially China, from infiltrating our businesses, schools, communities and homes," a Wednesday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal read. "Better yet, we must position the U.S. as a global leader in the field."
The authors of the piece, technology expert Jacob Helberg and Alabama Senator Katie Britt, cited recent comments made by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who claimed that humanoid technology in the U.S. was advancing at such a rate, that it would soon "be odd not to have a robot buddy, your C-3PO or R2-D2."
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, however, "has a less benign idea."
China is targeting supremacy in the advanced technology industry, and is already the world's largest market for robot installations, according to the International Federation of Robotics, despite being second to Japan in terms of robot manufacturing.
Boosted by "aggressive" government subsidizing, as well as the country's cheap but effective "inhuman labor practices," the authors claim that Beijing will be capable of "mass-producing humanoids" by 2025.
As well as threatening U.S. economic competitiveness, given the growth potential of the emerging industry, they warn that these robots, if shipped to American consumers, "threaten Americans' personal security because of the data they collect."
"These robots will take in limitless information about their surroundings, including any person with whom they interact."
The potential industrial applications of these robots in U.S. factories will also mean that America's economic success will be tied "to the goodwill of the Communist Party."
Given the growing attempts by China to incorporate these humanoid robots into its military, should the U.S. fall behind in developing such technology, its troops may "face fatal disadvantages on the battlefield."
The solution, the authors argue, is to "procure and develop this technology independent from China."
Steps have already been taken in this direction, most recently in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
In an effort to decouple its military arsenal from Chinese manufacturing, Congress included prohibitions on the U.S. and its contractors from "using logistics systems owned or operated by the People's Republic of China," and from purchasing drones from the country "except in certain circumstances."
"A similar restriction on Chinese humanoids is needed," Helberg and Britt write.
"Congress should ban the importation of Chinese humanoids and ensure that no American technology can support their creation before Xi Jinping has his own robotic army on American soil."
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