Musk's 'Optimus Prime' is about to come out, setting off new social changes
arts/
On June 21, Bloomberg Technology retweeted a tweet saying that Musk was being interviewed by Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. When asked about the humanoid robot that will be displayed at the end of September, Tesla CEO Musk said that in A humanoid robot prototype should be developed at the end of September, and an artificial intelligence regulator should be established.
In terms of Tesla, the prototype of the humanoid robot Tesla Bot Optimus (Optimus Prime) is about to appear on the Tesla AI Day on September 30. "Silicon Valley Iron Man" Musk even hinted that this AI day will be an "epic level". ". Of course, the influence of external forces brought about by Musk's interview is indeed not small, which directly led to the collective rise of our A-share robot-related companies.
So why I pay attention to this matter, the core reason is that humanoid robots are a very important technology for human society in this century . It is also a new issue facing human society today, that is, the controversy over the birth rate.
At present, the world is facing a situation of declining birth rate, so under such circumstances, is it necessary to encourage fertility? What is the purpose of our human birth? If it is for economic development, then we can completely replace human production and labor by developing humanoid robots.
According to the social model under the trend of science and technology, the birth rate of the population has been greatly reduced, and then with the help of the shrinking population and the development of science and technology, especially the development of humanoid robots, the role played by humans should not be to undertake specific production. Tasks, but innovations in thought, humanities, art, technology, etc., to better manage humanoid robots to engage in most production tasks. And this is a sociological issue and a technology ethics issue. I will have the opportunity to open a series of courses to discuss this issue in the future.
Back to Musk's humanoid robot issue, Tesla internally named Tesla Bot "Optimus". Its height is 1.72m, its weight is 57kg, its load is 20kg (with 5kg attached to its arms), and its movement speed can reach up to 8 km/h. Its surface is made of "lightweight materials" that are smoother than human skin. At the same time, "Optimus Prime" has a screen on its face that can display specific information; it has hands with human activity levels, and its limbs are controlled by 40 electromechanical actuators; its feet can sense feedback to achieve balance and agility. The robot head will be equipped with the same smart driving camera as the Tesla car, built-in FSD chip, and share the AI system with the car. Because Musk has talked about it before, "It can be said that Tesla is the largest robot company in the world, and our cars are almost semi-perceptual robots with wheels."
In January of this year, Musk talked about his humanoid robot, which is Tesla's "most important product" this year, even higher than cars. If Tesla can complete R&D and production, and if "Optimus Prime" can complete tasks that can only be done by humans at present, it is possible to "completely solve the labor shortage and subvert the existing economic model."
Then, in April of this year, Musk specifically envisioned the robot's function in a home environment in an interview, calling it a companion robot with diverse applications and forms . In an interview in April, Musk revealed that Tesla would mass-produce the Optimus Prime within the next two years. Under the cost reduction effect of scale, its cost will eventually be lower than that of a car. Then according to the interview host Anderson estimated at the time, it was about 25,000 US dollars (about 159,500 yuan).
It can be said that Musk’s interview today told us two very important information. The first is that humanoid robots will definitely become a reality in this century. It is very confident to achieve human-like, and even surpass human in some performance and learning.
We see that whether it is robots or new energy vehicles, before Musk entered, these two fields have been developing, but they have never been able to truly break through the point of commercial application. There is no doubt that new energy vehicles are because of horses. Tesla, then, really brought the auto industry into the era of new energy vehicles, and this kind of change was something that traditional auto companies could not expect at all . Therefore, Musk's entry into the humanoid robot industry this time will accelerate the real entry of humanoid robots into the life of our human society;
The second problem is that the humanoid robots currently launched by Musk can only be applied to specific mechanical industries, and are not satisfied with the role of human life assistants. But with the passage of time and the continuous iteration of technology, eventually humanoid robots will enter our lives and become our life assistants and life partners.
In the near future, who is the most reliable for old age care? It's a humanoid robot. And when the era of humanoid robots is opening, what we may need to think about is, what is the value of our human existence? What is the future difference between us and AI robots?