As he promised back in June of this year, Elon Musk introduced Optimus, the humanoid robot his company created, to the world at Tesla's AI Day yesterday. After Optimus walked out onstage to greet the crowd at the event, a video demonstrating its completion of various tasks was screened. One of the primary benefits of its bots, the company has said, is that they can take on repetitive or dangerous work in environments like factory floors.
And a lot's riding on Musk's investment in AI: Tesla expects its robots will eventually make the company more money than its cars will. What's different about Optimus from its competitors? It purports to be much more capable in its "thinking" and productivity—with a much lower price tag. Though it remains to be seen exactly what the impact of humanoid robots on society will be, it appears that Tesla may have just raised the bar in the AI game.