No Terminator: Musk teases 'useful' humanoid robot

Oh my. 3 to 5 years? What a fruitcake.

It’s a step in the right direction.

"The robot can actually do a lot more than we just showed you, we just didn't want it to fall on its face," Musk quipped.

Musk still has a long way to go before these bots can come close to the abilities of the drones in Iain Banks Culture series, which he professes to use for inspiration.

Safety protocols and eventually a moral sense would also be in order.

Ending poverty by selling $20,000 robots to carry stuff.

Must be one of those ‘trickle down’ things.

He is off his rocker!

Oh my. 3 to 5 years? What a fruitcake.

The left thinks EV cars will replace combustion cars within 5 years so….

Ending poverty by selling $20,000 robots to carry stuff.

Must be one of those ‘trickle down’ things.

It won’t end with the current political structure in place, especially when people can’t even afford the very basics. Income redistribution has failed and people are now waking up to that harsh reality and want change.

Income redistribution has failed and people are now waking up to that harsh reality and want change.

Wrong as usual.

In Japan New Capitalism wealth distribution has been a joke.

And in the US it is even worse, growing and slowing economic progress.

https://www.epi.org/publication/secular-stagnation/

Even Musk supports a UBI.

It won’t end with the current political structure in place, especially when people can’t even afford the very basics. Income redistribution has failed and people are now waking up to that harsh reality and want change.

Explain how $20,000 robots will bring change. Do it without mentioning ‘the left’ if you can.

What a success story! All he had to fall back on his family's African emerald mine during Aparthied. What a hero!

I used to think a lot of Elon Musk. Now, I have seen the same set up in all of his companies - the IDEAL: an idea to revolutionize ... something - to take Man to the next level, change our reality. Then, the build-up: a lot of R&D riddled with failures. Next, the reality: a product that doesn't do what was promised but is different, contains some advance in technology and has sale-able qualities of style, etc.

Elon touts himself as a Savior, but he never delivered what was promised. He is another super-salesman with a good bait-and-switch who rides people to glory. That's all.

Elon is not Mr. Tesla, but EM is a professional grifter that has made a lot of money.

Explain how $20,000 robots will bring change. Do it without mentioning ‘the left’ if you can.

I never said that it was, but I am saying that the current trajectory that this admin is taking the nation on will not help put more money in the voter's pockets or stock their pantries so only the mega-rich will be able to afford them. The average American won't stand a chance with their current financial policies.

Elon touts himself as a Savior, but he never delivered what was promised. He is another super-salesman with a good bait-and-switch who rides people to glory. That's all.

Not that much different from the current admin.

Not that much different from the current admin.

Or for a clearer example… The previous administration.

How can a $20,000 robot that destroys human jobs and enriches its creator end world poverty?..

Sounds sooooo fishy..

The left thinks EV cars will replace combustion cars within 5 years so….

Maybe not in 5 years but surely in a not too distant future...

Burning fossil fuels is for cavemen..

Not that much different from the current admin.

It's ok to be sad, lol..

Musk may have the cash to take things further than most, but there is a real need to manage expectations in android development. Everyone has seen the SF and expects Data from Star Trek or Aji 3. The AI fantasies need to end and much more work needs to be done to make androids do less, more simply, but more reliably.

And the 'ending poverty' stuff just makes him sound like a snake oil salesman. Also unhelpful. Automation has, if anything, increased poverty amongst a strata of society, replacing those that were easy to replace.

The truth may be that tech, robots and AI will hit a glass ceiling. They can do simple things more quickly and cheaply. But with anything that involves complex interaction with people, they will be less capable than a human or even a pet dog. Because AI is not really 'artificial intelligence', it is just a bunch of subroutines.

Going from logic to fuzzy logic doesn't carry over the reliability of computers, it breaks it. In truth we value computers because they (generally) do simple things reliably and quickly. We will stop trusting them when they become learning machines. Like children, machines learn by making mistakes. Nobody wants to buy a computer that makes mistakes. And that's where we need to manage the expectations of consumers and of those designing the androids.

There is much to do, and Musk's enthusiasm and money will hopefully push on with it. But there are a lot of dead ends that are still being followed in android design, so it is something of a lottery whenever a company develops a new model. The legal issues are also a problem - the expectation that a computer controlled car never has an accident, for example. There are thousands of RTAs around the world every day. If a Tesla runs over someone's foot, it makes the news. It's not a healthy or rational environment for tech at the moment.

And anything that does get built, the world's militaries will weaponise to kill people. That won't endear androids to people either.

Musk's terracotta army.

I never said that it was, but I am saying that the current trajectory that this admin is taking the nation on will not help put more money in the voter's pockets or stock their pantries so only the mega-rich will be able to afford them. The average American won't stand a chance with their current financial policies.

So, any comments on either Musk, robots or Musk and robots?

If this thing can do my laundry and some basic house chores, it is a win for me.

Interesting, so for 20K US$ I can buy one of these robots which will tireless work 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, and not require food, sleep, toilet breaks, etc. Employers won't need to pay into Social Insurance schemes, or Pension schemes, won't even need to hire HR people. So who wins here ?

Pensions dry up - because being quite literally Ponzi schemes, when no one pays into them, the outgoing monies quickly drain resources. No future for people - so birth rates decline rapidly.

People won't get jobs - since hiring a Human would be more expensive than a Robot. A Robot can unload pallets from a truck, stack shelves in a shop, guard the shop, take payments, etc... no more need of staff for Convenience stores.

The only jobs left will be Lawyers, Doctors and maintenance Engineers for Robots. A Bleak future lies ahead.

I find this incredibly exciting. Elon dreams big, maybe bigger than he can deliver sometimes, but thats probably a required personality trait for game changing innovators.

I think this is only part of the first wave of what are essentislly just very useful, adaptable machines - freeing humans from repetitive, dull or dangerous work.

The worry is if they become sentient.

I never said that it was, but I am saying that the current trajectory that this admin is taking the nation on will not help put more money in the voter's pockets or stock their pantries so only the mega-rich will be able to afford them.

That's what happens when ya vote mega-rich into government

How can a $20,000 robot that destroys human jobs and enriches its creator end world poverty?..

Exactly, sounds very fishy, Musk could turn out to be just another fat cat hell bent on profit and exploitation.

Look at the design - it's intended to replace human tasks, human dexterity. If it's meant to do unwanted boring, repetitive and dangerous tasks like Musk said, it would not take humanoid shape, it would instead look like a Fanuc manufacturing robot.

And if you put that new toy just only into the corner for rusting down, it is even a little bit green , carbon free and self-sufficient. Otherwise I guess the eco and climate fraction will come by and put it into the corner for you.

Musk is not all there,a man that lost billion ,by open his big mouth

The best head of hair plugs on the planet shows us a robot that we would love to program to dismember him.