Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicted that robots will outnumber humans “at certain points” in the future during a pre-recorded speech for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2023 that opened yesterday in Shanghai.
In the nine-minute video, he began by saying that now is probably a time of most profound changes in human history.
Against this backdrop, Tesla’s humanoid robots, currently under development, are still at a very early stage, he noted.
He boldly forecast that the proportion of robots to humans will at certain points exceed 1:1, meaning that more robots will walk this planet than humans.
The Tesla Bot, or Optimus as it is also known, is intended for completion of jobs or tasks shunned by mankind.
So it would be quite practical, the boss of Twitter and SpaceX explained.
Musk admitted that he had made similar predictions that turned out to be not entirely correct, but this time he felt he was “getting close (to the truth).”
Musk has professed his faith in the rising adoption of humanoid general-purpose robots on many occasions.
He once declared that humanoid robots will replace EVs to become the principal source of long-term value for Tesla at the company’s AI Day event this year.
Despite the fact that the Tesla Bot is a long way from reaching mass production, let alone mass adoption, rumors have circulated of the device carrying a sticker price of less than US$20,000, or equivalent to some 150,000 yuan.
Musk also credited China’s AI industry, saying China will succeed in whatever it sets its mind to do.
In other parts of his speech, he also touched upon issues ranging from autonomous driving to AIGC.
