Regulation Advances, Robots Log Marathon Shifts, and AI Dev Tools Hit Mobile
Saturday’s AI landscape is defined by a policy reckoning on both sides of the Atlantic, a striking robotics endurance record, and Google pushing its developer platform onto your phone. Here’s what moved the needle in the past 24 hours.
California Sends 30 AI Bills Across the Aisle
Ahead of Friday’s legislative crossover deadline, nearly all of California’s 30 remaining AI bills cleared their chamber of origin. The package spans student privacy protections for AI-driven ed-tech, disclosure rules for customer-service chatbots, and restrictions on AI-assisted workplace surveillance. California’s AI legislative push is now the most active state-level docket in the country, with each bill heading to the opposite chamber for committee review before a potential floor vote.
EU AI Act Gets Its First Formal Amendments
The European Union reached a provisional agreement on the Digital Omnibus, the first set of changes to the EU AI Act since it was adopted in June 2024. The deal grants compliance deadline extensions for some obligations, simplifies requirements for lower-risk systems, and introduces two new prohibited practices — including AI-generated non-consensual intimate imagery. The agreement, reached by EU institutions on May 7, still requires formal adoption but signals regulators are willing to recalibrate even recently enacted rules.
Figure AI Robots Sort 250,000 Packages in 200-Hour Nonstop Run
Figure AI’s humanoid robots completed a 200-hour continuous operation at a package-sorting facility, processing 249,560 packages — roughly one every 2.9 seconds — with zero mechanical failures. Three Figure 03 units ran in rotating shifts, automatically walking to wireless charging docks when their batteries ran low. The milestone run, powered by the company’s Helix-02 AI system, began as a response to an eight-hour endurance challenge and stretched to nine days of around-the-clock autonomous operation.
Google AI Studio Arrives on Android, iOS Pre-Registration Opens
Google’s AI Studio — previously a browser-only tool for prototyping Gemini-powered apps — is now available on the Google Play Store for Android, with the iOS version listed for a July 1 launch on the App Store. The mobile app supports full build-mode prototyping and Firebase integration, letting developers iterate on AI-powered web apps directly from their phones. The rollout extends one of Google’s most developer-friendly tools to a dramatically wider audience.
What to watch: Colorado’s comprehensive AI legislation takes effect June 30 — the first broad state law requiring risk assessments for high-impact AI systems — which could set a precedent other states follow as their own bills clear committees this summer.