SILICON VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 15, 2026--
Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) today announced Zee, what it believes to be the world’s leading aviation-specific foundational model that delivers a unified aviation intelligence platform built on ADS-B, ATC communication, maps and charts, aircraft state, terrain and weather data. Zee is trained on real-world operational data, aggregated through Archer's proprietary data pipeline and a global network of over 6,000 ADS-B receivers.
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“We are building an intelligence layer for the entire aviation system with Zee. The company that owns the data and the foundation model will help lead the aviation industry into the next era of flight,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer.
On a typical day, more than 45,000 flights move through American airspace. That flight activity generates a constant flow of data in the form of radio calls, navigation inputs and aircraft-state that pilots and air traffic controllers piece together in real time. Zee is built to understand these disparate data sources as a single system. The goal of Archer’s approach with this unified aviation intelligence platform is to deliver a lower latency, better performing model capable of running on-device requiring no connectivity, critical for use in a wide range of aviation environments from air taxis and UAVs to commercial airliners and air traffic management.
Archer’s AI team of nearly 100 researchers and engineers is led by Mario Srouji, who joined Archer last year after his time at Apple, and advised by Professor Ruslan Salakhutdinov, former VP of AI Research at Meta and Director of AI Research at Apple. The team is made up of AI researchers with prior tenure at leading AI companies across Silicon Valley as well as top university labs.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has committed approximately $20 billion to modernizing the national airspace, a generational undertaking. That investment reflects a broader recognition that the systems running the airspace need to be upgraded. Zee is built for that shift, bringing AI to the operational decisions with the goal of helping improve flight safety and efficiency.
Mario Srouji, VP of AI Products at Archer said, “Aviation is having its GPT moment. Our current national air system is built on legacy technology, and is ripe for AI innovation. Archer’s world-class team, and industry-leading Zee foundation model positions us to help lead the industry transformation; unlocking new levels of safety, efficiency, and scale for America’s airspace.”
Archer is in discussions to deploy Zee initially through pilot programs with governments, airlines and other industry partners. Applications include airline operations, airspace management, and copilot assistance with the goal of helping improve flight safety and efficiency.
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Archer builds the aircraft and core technologies that will define the next era of flight for aerospace and defense.
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Forward-Looking Statements and Disclaimers
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Archer’s future business plans, expectations, and opportunities. These statements include those regarding design, target specifications and use cases of its technologies; timing of Archer’s development and commercialization of its technologies; development of its planned lines of business and opportunities; and anticipated benefits of collaborations with third parties. Forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual results due to a variety of factors. The risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted are more fully detailed in Archer’s filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, available at investors.archer.com and at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that Archer believes to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. Archer undertakes no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.
Archer Announces Zee, AI Foundation Model Purpose-Built for Aviation, a Key Pillar of Its Physical AI Strategy
PARIS (AP) — France’s National Assembly is set to give final approval Wednesday to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, the culmination of years of debate over end-of-life care.
The lower house of parliament is widely expected to approve the measure after backing it in three previous readings, completing parliament’s work on the legislation announced by French President Emmanuel Macron over three years ago.
According to various estimates, assisted dying is available to some 300 million people worldwide, with euthanasia legal under certain conditions in some countries and assisted suicide allowed in others and in several U.S. states.
France has an increasingly aging population, with growing numbers of patients who require care for chronic illnesses. The traditionally Catholic country has grappled with legal, medical, moral and religious questions about end-of-life options, including existing legislation that allows doctors to keep terminally ill patients sedated before death but stops short of allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Many French people have traveled to neighboring countries where medically assisted suicide or euthanasia are legal. Medically assisted suicide generally involves a patient voluntarily taking lethal medication prescribed by a doctor. Euthanasia involves a doctor or other health care professional administering a lethal injection at the patient’s request.
End-of-life options are also being debated in the United Kingdom. A bill to legalize assisted dying in England and Wales will formally return to Parliament on Sept. 11, five months after it ran out of time in Parliament’s last session.
The proposed measure in France primarily provides for medically assisted suicide, by allowing patients to receive and self-administer lethal medication under strict conditions. Only people whose physical condition prevents them from doing so would be allowed to receive assistance from a doctor or a nurse.
Patients seeking to end their lives would have to be at least 18 years old and either French citizens or legal residents of France.
A doctor would first have to consult a team of health care professionals and then confirm that the patient has a serious and incurable illness that is life-threatening. The patient must be in an advanced or terminal stage, experiencing pain that cannot be relieved or is unbearable, and seeking lethal medication of their own free will.
Lawmakers specified that psychological suffering alone would not qualify a person for medically assisted dying.
People with severe psychiatric disorders or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s would not be eligible.
Patients would initiate the request, to be reviewed by health professionals within 15 days, and then confirm it after a period of reflection lasting at least two days.
If approved, they could take the lethal medication at the time and in the place of their choice, including at home or in a health care facility, in the presence of their loved ones if they wish.
On the chosen date, the doctor or nurse would have to verify that the person still wishes to proceed and remain nearby to intervene if complications arise.
France’s national health insurance system would cover all associated costs.
A 2023 report found that most French people are in favor of legalizing end-of-life options, and opinion polls have shown support increasing over the past two decades.
The Association for the Right to Die With Dignity said the law would allow people “to choose to end unbearable suffering, freely and with full awareness.” Its president, Jonathan Denis, said in a statement that “a law that creates a new right never forces anyone to exercise it. It does, however, ensure that every person … can remain at the heart of medical decisions that concern them and have their wishes respected.”
Opponents argue the measure could put pressure on older people and those living with illness or disabilities.
In an open letter to Macron, the anti-euthanasia group Alliance Vita said “every effort must be made to ensure that people who are suffering have immediate access to palliative care and support. Presenting death as a desirable solution can never be an acceptable response to suffering and is contrary to human dignity.”
The Senate, the upper house where conservatives hold a majority, rejected the bill. But under France’s legislative process, the National Assembly has the final say when the two houses of parliament disagree.
Senate President Gérard Larcher and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said they will refer the bill, once adopted, to the Constitutional Council, which will have up to a month to determine whether it complies with the Constitution. The law would only enter into force once that review has been completed.
“Extensive debates have taken place in the National Assembly on this bill. However, discussions in the Senate did not allow for such an in-depth examination, in order to produce legislation that addresses both the aspirations of its supporters and the concerns of those who are worried about how it will be implemented,” Lecornu said.
In the U.K., opponents of the bill to legalize assisted dying prevented it from passing in the House of Lords, the upper house, by filing more than 1,200 amendments on a range of concerns, including potential coercion of vulnerable people and a lack of safeguards for those with disabilities.
That was in April, after elected representatives in the House of Commons passed it.
The bill that is expected to be presented again proposes allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel. One aim is so people no longer go to other countries, such as Switzerland, for an assisted death.
In Germany, parliament’s lower house, the Bundestag, in 2023 considered two proposals to regulate assisted dying and rejected both of them.
Samuel Petrequin and John Leicester in Paris, Pan Pylas in London and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech on the end-of-life options, April 3, 2023, at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool, File)
FILE - The National Assembly is seen, Jan. 13, 2026, in Paris. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva, File)
