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AI Desk · Robotics

Safety, regulation & labour

Standards, rules and the labour question: keeping people safe as machines join the workforce.

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All robotics
A white humanoid robot and a grey quadruped robot beside a wooden desk carrying a printed skills certificate from the Hangzhou Robot School, a machine code printed on it, under the words ROBOT SCHOOL

China has started issuing skill certificates to robots

Thirty machines from 16 companies enrolled at the Hangzhou Robot School on 29 June. They sit an entrance check, train in one of four departments, take a real-scene assessment, and leave with a graded certificate and a code tied to the individual machine.

7 min read◉ audio

Photo collage: Apptronik's Apollo 2 humanoid walking with a watering can, a Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped, a Franka bi-arm robot passing a mug, and close-ups of a five-finger hand tying a knot and a two-finger gripper packing a box, over panels listing the three models and the measured scores

Gemini Robotics 2 takes a humanoid from feet to fingertips

Google DeepMind's new robot models control a full humanoid rather than its upper body, run three different machines from one checkpoint, and let two robots divide a job between them. The company's own results say fine multi-finger work is still the hard part.

6 min read◉ audio

Data plate: the AI Act high-risk application dates moving from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027 for stand-alone systems and 2 August 2028 for AI inside machinery

Europe gives robot makers two more years on its AI rules

The AI Omnibus entered into force on 27 July, six days before the AI Act's high-risk duties were due to apply. For AI built into machines, including industrial and humanoid robots, those duties now start on 2 August 2028.

4 min read

Data plate: the FAA BVLOS rule timeline from executive order 14307 to the final rule reaching OIRA on 10 July 2026, with rule file and status panels

America's beyond-line-of-sight drone rule reaches its last desk

The FAA's final rule for routine drone flights beyond visual line of sight arrived at the White House regulatory review office on 10 July, 159 days after the deadline set for it by executive order and eleven months after the proposal was published.

4 min read◉ audio

Data plate: human fatal crash rates on surface streets, indexed to Boston, with Memphis at 8.4 and the study file for two peer-reviewed papers

Waymo puts numbers on where and when human driving turns dangerous

Two peer-reviewed studies from Waymo map human fatal crash risk by city, road type and hour of the day, and find the single national average that self-driving safety claims lean on hides both the safest and the most dangerous driving in America.

4 min read◉ audio