Elon Musk unveils Tesla Bot

Three slides detailed the robot’s proposed specifications, and Musk made sure he pointed out that you could both outrun the Tesla Bot and “overpower” it. He has, in the past, railed against the use of robots as weapons and warned of the risks AI might pose — once calling it the “biggest risk we face as a civilization.” I guess if they’re your incredibly slow, easy-to-overpower robots, the dangers are reduced.

“We should be worried about AI,” Musk reiterated during a question and answer session after the presentation. “What we’re trying to do here at Tesla is make useful AI that people love and is … unequivocally good.”

One particular slide said the Tesla Bot would eliminate “dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks,” and Musk provided an example, suggesting the robot could be told to “go to the store and get … the following groceries.” Not that such a task is particularly dangerous, but you might find it repetitive and boring.

Musk, prone to making bold statements about the future, riffed a little on how he envisions Tesla Bot changing the future of work, too. “This, I think, will be quite profound,” he said. “Essentially, in the future, physical work will be a choice. If you want to do it, you can, but you won’t need to do it.”

It’s hard to say how far off such a future might be, but there’s a huge gap between showing off a few PowerPoint slides and delivering an actual, working humanoid robot. It’s probably going to be a long while before you get your bread and milk via the Tesla Bot, but, Musk said, a prototype will likely be ready next year.