Elon Musk presented them as the servants of the future during a Tesla event in Los Angeles. But the voices and movements of the Optimus robot “prototypes” were still directed by human pilots.
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It was one of the star attractions of the “We, Robot” event organized by Tesla, Thursday October 10 in Los Angeles, California (United States). After presenting his autonomous taxi project called Cybercab and autonomous bus, Robovan, Elon Musk unveiled the new version of his autonomous humanoid robot project: Optimus.
Prototypes of this robot, which the billionaire assures will eventually be autonomous and capable of looking after your children or walking your dog, circulated among the public and amazed many guests. A video of the robot serving a drink while answering a guest’s questions has garnered millions of views on the social network others and their very low response time in a very turbulent environment, the autonomy of such robots would be a technical feat.
Except that there is a catch: these robots were not controlled by artificial intelligence, but by humans behind the scenes, which Elon Musk had not specified during their presentation. The voice coming from one of them admitted this to one of the guests in a video posted on X: “Today, I am assisted by a human, I am not yet fully autonomous.” Another only confirms that he “could have some AI” in the way it is managed. The extent of technological prowess is therefore much more difficult to grasp.
The revelation is not so surprising, since the first presentation of this “humanoid” robot project, in August 2021, involved a human being in a suit, recalls the specialized site The Verge. In another video showing the robot folding a t-shirt, Elon Musk also had to admit that the robot was controlled by a human, whose hand was visible in the image. Another little accommodation with reality for a boss accustomed to grandiose and often unfulfilled promises.