Becca Monaghan
Oct 14, 2024
ZMG - Amaze Lab / VideoElephant
Tech mogul Elon Musk has unveiled a Tesla robot that "will do anything you want" – sending social media users into a frenzy with comparisons to Will Smith's 2004 film iRobot.
The company’s newest edition of the Tesla bot 'Optimus' was shared with the public at an event on Thursday (10 October). Musk described it as the "biggest product ever of any kind."
"It can be a teacher, babysit your kids, it can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks, whatever you can think of, it will do," he explained.
Optimus is set to cost around $20,000 to $30,000, with Musk predicting the cost to be "less than a car [...] long term."
Attention soon turned to a creepy interaction between Optimus and interviewer John, who asked about its origins and the biggest challenge of being a bot.
When asked about where it lived, Optimus named the location of the factory, adding: "That's where they train us, that's where we get our builds - they're wonderful, super people."
Then, when John asked, "What's the hardest thing about being a robot?" Optimus paused and responded: "Trying to learn how to be as human as you guys are.
"And that's something I try to do harder every day and I hope that you'll help us become that."
One person described the conversation as "bone-chilling," while another wrote: "It’s only as scary as the human programmers make them."
Meanwhile, a third quipped: "I hope they aspire to emulate the more empathetic and sociable characteristics of humans."
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