Tesla is building an AI humanoid robot

 

Tesla will go from making autonomous electric cars to humanoid robots that “eliminate dangerous, repetitive and boring tasks” and respond to the voice commands of their owners.

The robot, named Optimus by the company, is 173 centimeters tall and weighs 57 kilograms. Your body will be powered by 0 electromechanical actuators and your face will have a screen.

Optimus will be able to carry a load of up to 20 kilograms, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims that a working prototype will be ready by next year.

At the company’s AI Day event, which aims to attract research and engineering talent to the company, Musk said that much of the technology in Tesla’s autonomous cars is applicable or useful for the development of humanoid robots.

“Tesla is possibly the largest robotics company in the world because our cars are like semi-sensitive robots on wheels,” he said. “It makes sense to put that in humanoid form. We are pretty good at sensors, batteries, and actuators as well. ”

Musk said the machine will be limited to a walking speed of 8km / h and will be deliberately weak enough for most humans to master it if necessary. “You never know,” said Musk, who previously suggested in his presentation that general artificial intelligence – hypothetical AI capable of completing any task a human being can perform – was the greatest threat facing humanity. must face today.

The robot is still in development, but automation will make physical work an option in the future, which will have profound implications for the economy and will require universal basic income as a government policy, Musk said. A costumed human dancer was introduced at the event to give the audience an idea of ​​what to expect from the robot.

Tesla also announced a custom computer chip optimized for artificial intelligence called the D1, which he is using to create a supercomputer called the Dojo. This car is designed to process large amounts of data from cameras and sensors in Tesla cars and train the neural networks behind Tesla’s autonomous driving technology. These updates and updates can be delivered to cars around the world via the Internet.