Elon Musk 曝光全新人形機器人計劃「Tesla Bot」
Elon Musk unveiled plans for a human-like robot — but the first prototype was just a guy dancing in a bodysuit
Elon Musk showcased Tesla’s plans for a new humanoid robot on Thursday.
The Tesla CEO presented a prototype of the robot – a human dancing in a skin-tight bodysuit.
Musk says the real deal will have important implications for the way companies and individuals use and view labor.
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Elon Musk may have plans for the Tesla Bot to revolutionize the labor economy, but for now, it’s just an actor dancing wildly in a bodysuit.
Elon Musk unveiled a new robotics project, the Tesla Bot, during the company’s AI event on Thursday. It will be built with Tesla’s Autopilot technology in human form, Musk said.
In what was posed to be a dramatic unveiling of potentially game-changing artificial intelligence technology, the Tesla Bot’s introduction to the world was casual and jokey. The presentation began with sleek close-up visuals of the robot’s humanlike appearance, with the Tesla name emboldened on its chest. By the end, a real person dressed in a white bodysuit and black mask — nearly, but oddly identical to the look of the actual robot — walked onstage and started gyrating to EDM synth music.
The Tesla CEO, who watched from the sidelines for less than a minute, essentially cut the dance short and chuckled as he retook center stage.
“Unlike [the Dojo supercomputer], that was not real,” Musk admitted nonchalantly, fully realizing the joke, “The Tesla Bot will be real.”
The dancing actor dressed similarly to this robot. Tesla/Reuters
The robot, which will measure 5 ft. 8 in. and weigh only 125 pounds, is meant to outsource both menial and dangerous tasks. Musk, who has cautioned about the dangers of AI, touted the robot’s intentional inferiority to humans, designed to be easily overpowered and outperformed by regular people. But he also noted how he wants it to reshape the economy.
“At the foundation, [the economy] is labor. So what happens if there was no shortage in labor?” Musk said, mentioning a possible future where “physical work will be a choice.”
“It’s why I think, long-term, there needs to be universal basic income,” Musk casually added. “But not right now because this robot doesn’t work.”
Though this “prototype” may have been a man in costume, the company expects to have a working prototype in 2022.
Elon Musk unveils Tesla robot that would do hard work for humans - National
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A billionaire inventor plans to build a line of artificially intelligent robots that could replace humans as physical labourers in the future.
What could go wrong?
Elon Musk announced on Thursday that he’s working on a humanoid robot at Tesla, which he said could have a “profound” impact on the economy in the future.
“It’s basically going to start dealing with work that is boring, repetitive and dangerous,” Musk said at Tesla’s AI Day event on Thursday night.
The so-called Tesla Bot will stand five feet eight inches, weigh 125 pounds, and move at roughly eight kilometres per hour, which is the equivalent of a brisk walk. Each one will be capable of lifting up to 45 pounds, and will feature a display screen in place of its face — if Musk can make it a reality.
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He added that the robot would be meant for doing jobs that people “least like to do,” and that physical labour would eventually become a “choice” for humans.
A concept video depicts the robot as a faceless black-and-grey humanoid. It looks vaguely like a cross between the unskinned robots from Westworld and the stick figure that appears on men’s restroom signs.
Join us to build the future of AI → https://t.co/Gdd4MNet6q pic.twitter.com/86cXMVnJ59 — Tesla (@Tesla) August 20, 2021
Musk said the robots would navigate using eight cameras and Tesla’s AI computer chip, which is currently used to run the car company’s smart vehicles.
He said he hopes to have a prototype ready sometime next year, although he did not share a timeline beyond that. He also stressed that he does not want it to be “super expensive,” because he wants to see them in widespread use in the future.
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Musk is well-known for making big promises about a science-fiction-like future, though he doesn’t always deliver on the hype.
His Tesla cars, for example, are currently under investigation by U.S. safety authorities after 11 collisions with emergency vehicles were linked to its Autopilot system over the last three years.
His otherworldly ambitions with SpaceX have also occasionally blown up in a series of launchpad disasters.
Nevertheless, Musk hopes to one day send humans to Mars via SpaceX, which has already developed its own reusable rockets and capsules for transporting people into orbit.
Artificial intelligence has come a long way in recent decades, but it’s still fairly limited in terms of what it can do in physical environments.
Humanoid robots remain largely the stuff of science fiction, which often portrays them as rebellious creations and killers such as the Terminator, Marvel’s Ultron and the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica.
The sci fi-loving Musk said he’s well aware of the dangers of AI, and that’s why he’s trying to design the robots with reasonable limits.
“We’re setting it such that it is at a mechanical level, a physical level, that you can run away from it,” Musk said. “And most likely overpower it.”
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In other words, humanity should be able to outrun and outmuscle the robots during a Tesla-powered AI rebellion … most likely.