Khaberni - American billionaire Elon Musk, during the annual Tesla shareholder meeting, proposed a controversial idea aimed at using Optimus robots to monitor criminals after their conviction, instead of sending them to prison, describing it as "a more humane form of containing future crime."
Elon Musk explained that the idea is based on a humanoid robot accompanying the convicted person, acting as a mobile surveillance camera to prevent them from committing new crimes.
He said, "If someone commits a crime, we can give them a robot that follows them wherever they go and prevents them from committing the crime, without the need to put them in jail... The robot will only prevent crime, and the rest of their life they can live normally."
The idea raised several questions, such as how will the robots actually prevent crime? Who will fund the widespread deployment of this technology? And will the robots be reliable enough to monitor criminals around the clock?
Tesla announced the Optimus project in 2021, and showcased a prototype in 2022, aiming for the robot to be "a humanoid, bipedal robot capable of performing dangerous, boring, or repetitive tasks," relying on systems for balance, navigation, computer vision, and environmental interaction.
Despite the progress, the commercial version of Optimus has not yet been launched, while Tesla expects production to begin next year in California.
Musk described the robot as an "infinite financial loophole," affirming its potential to increase the global economy tenfold and perhaps 100 times upon its widespread deployment.
Musk also mentioned the possibility of using the Neuralink project in the future to download an approximate version of human consciousness into the body of an Optimus robot, saying, "I believe this will be possible within less than 20 years."
