At the We, Robot event, Elon Musk gave a glimpse of what the future will look like. From self-driving cars to humanoid robots, the event was full of futuristic ideas. While audiences are in awe of Cybercabs – fully autonomous cars with no pedals or steering wheels – the Tesla Optimus has also attracted a lot of attention. Musk introduced humanoids as robots that can do whatever you want. Interesting, isn’t it? The program featured Optimus’ skills, including walking, dancing, holding a glass, waving back, and talking. But the real fun started after the show ended. Tesla let Optimus humanoids walk around and talk to people (with the monitoring of other Tesla members, of course).

There was a very interesting conversation between Optimus and a human in the program when he asked: “What is the hardest part of being a robot?” And Optimus answered in the best way humanly possible. After thinking for a few seconds he said, “Trying to learn how to be a person like you guys.” Not only was the answer profound, the robot’s speech presentation with hand gestures was also very human. It was also interesting to see that there were human-like humans who understood the small details of conversation between humans. This included taking pauses between sentences and understanding the context, asking follow-up questions, and even making small talk. And it kept turning toward the camera and the human, trying to connect with both, just like we do.

In the same conversation, Optimus also said that he is trying to get closer to human tendencies every day. It added, “And that’s something I strive for every day, and I hope you’ll help us become that.” Does this mean that Optimus wants our data to learn more about us? Learning AI models like ChatGPIT, Gemini, and Meta AI?

Another example caught our attention, which shows how close robots are to behaving like humans. The video was posted by @ehhuna on X. Here the user asks the robot if it knows how to operate rock, paper, scissors. Interestingly, the robot was well aware of the game and its rules. And then it was literally humans versus robots.

The video starts with the user asking the robot to say ‘hi’ to his wife. But Optimus realized and asked the most celebrity-like question, “Do you want to film this for your wife?” After a little conversation, they played 5 rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors. And guess what, humans are better still. But one thing is clear, Optimus is not a man to give up. It complimented the opponent, saying, “You’re very good at rock, paper, scissors.”

Elon Musk claims that Optimus will walk among you. “You’ll be able to walk right up to them and they’ll serve drinks,” he said. Musk describes the capabilities of Optimus as virtually unlimited. They say it can walk your dog, look after the kids, mow the lawn and even serve drinks. He estimates the long-term price will be between $20,000 and $30,000. Musk claimed, “I believe this will be the most important product ever made.”

Although still under development, Tesla has been releasing updates to reflect the progress of the Optimus; The demonstration on Thursday is an example of this. The Gen 2 model represents the latest leap in the evolution of robots. Although this is another step towards the future, it is a little scary. Remember, how strange it was when OpenAI introduced a human-like voice mode in its AI model, ChatGPT. Now, imagine a living thing that is walking and talking like a human being, except that it is not human.