Elon Musk tweets another crazy project, and it's hard to determine whether it's real or not. He says Tesla might be involved in creating Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). With that, they aim to decentralize the control of Optimus to avoid a Terminator-like scenario.
It is undeniable that Tesla is one of the world's leading companies in robotics and artificial intelligence. Its electric vehicles (EV) are widely recognized for their self-driving capabilities, which Musk described as "robots with wheels."
Notably, the company is not stopping with just technologically advanced vehicles. Musk tweeted that Tesla "might play a role in AGI... especially with the advent of Optimus."
Tesla AI might play a role in AGI, given that it trains against the outside world, especially with the advent of Optimus
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2022
Elon Musk Talks About Tesla Bot
For reference, the new project is linked to an old conceptualized humanoid robot called Tesla Bot. This robot was teased on AI Day 2021, which is advertised to do "boring and dangerous" work for humans.
Months after the reveal, Musk codenamed the Tesla Bot project to "Optimus" or "Optimus Subprime." Note that it is still under development, and Tesla has yet to manufacture a working prototype for Optimus.
Elon Musk Tweets Tesla AI
Linking up the tweet and the Optimus project, Musk teased that Tesla might be working on a robot fully capable of understanding and functioning like a human being. This is because AGI technology is "a machine capable of understanding the world as well as any human, and with the same capacity to learn how to carry out a huge range of tasks," per ZDNet.
The project is insane, given the current level of technology, but not impossible. It seems Musk and his company is ready to take on the challenge.
The Terminator Is Coming
One fan found a bit of fun over Musk's bold declaration. They commented that if such a powerful robot was coming, it must be monitored by a company "who is aware of, and extremely cautious about, AGI gone awry."
The post ended with the quote "try not to summon the demon," which is a direct jab to Musk's comments about AGI turning against humanity, per Elektrek.
Will do our best. Decentralized control of the robots will be critical.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2022
Musk replied promptly that he and Tesla "will do our best. Decentralized control of the robots will be critical." This implies that they will distribute the control of the robot to selected partners and agencies to avoid a robot-hacking takeover, much like "The Terminator" movie.
Musk said that he tentatively expects Tesla to produce a working prototype of Optimus sometime this year.
Although the projects show a lot of promising potential, fans are recommended to wait for developments. Musk and Tesla both have a reputation for overpromising and underdelivering their projects with deadline constraints. Hopefully, more updates about this exciting project will be available later this year.
