Featured Image Credit: NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty
Westworld, I, Robot, Ex-Machina, M3GAN, Companion, and all the rest have taught us that robots can't be trusted.
Still, we continue to push into a Terminator-inspired future where robots reign supreme and humanity could be little more than their fleshy slaves.
While it's all well and good thinking about how robots can improve our day-to-day lives in terms of helping around the home and walking the dog, we're not sure we'd leave the Tesla Optimus robot babysitting our kids.
Elon Musk has already faced flak from the I, Robot director for 'copying' the design of its NS-5 robots, but undeterred, the world's richest man still maintains that it could be the biggest product of all time.
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Musk regularly shows off what the Optimus robot can do and how quickly they're evolving, and in his latest peek behind the curtain, he's wowed by showcasing a dancing Optimus. Pulling off some fancy footwork that most of us humans would be envious of, the tap-dancing Optimus is seen performing a routine.
Many couldn't believe it was real, with some claiming Musk had 'faked' the video and that it was created with artificial intelligence.
As well as Musk's Grok chatbot claiming it's the real deal, the man himself (under his Gorklon Rust name) assured us, "This is real, real-time."
Away from some refusing to believe in the dancing Optimus, one critic grumbled: "Still one of the most dangerous inventions to ever exist, potentially the last one...Yeah keep making it dance..."
Someone responded saying, "It’s literally designed to be limited mechanically to not be able to attack," although that's a tale we've heard a million times before in fiction.
Sharing a GIF from the Terminator movies, someone else said: "Dancing is not the problem. It's when we give them memory to remember we had them dancing and enough logic to know we were laughing at them. Then it quickly goes from cute robot dance routine to..."
Another concluded: "China's gonna make one whether you like it or not, this is like having nukes. if the other guy has one you have to have one."
Optimus was first introduced at 2021's AI Day, although there wasn't even a prototype, and Tesla was mocked for including a human dressed as a dancing robot. Our first proper look at Optimus came at 2022's AI day, and with movements being pretty basic, it shows how far we've come in a relatively short space of time.
Still one of the most dangerous invention to ever exist, potentially the last one...
— Frank The Dev 🇨🇦 🏴☠️ Steam in bio 🔥 (@BecomingCaptain) May 13, 2025
Yeah keep making it dance...
The evolution of Optimus could be about to hit a snag, with experts warning that ongoing trade wars could scupper plans for the Tesla Bot. We've already covered how Tesla needs China more than you'd think, while Musk has confirmed that Optimus has been affected by the country's rare mineral restrictions against the manufacturing of weapons, electronics, and other consumer goods.
Speaking in a recent earnings call, the Tesla CEO admitted: "China wants some assurances that these are not used for military purposes, which obviously they're not. They're just going into a humanoid robot."
Still, Tesla aims to produce one million Optimus robots by 2030, taking on dangerous or tedious jobs.
After Tesla's profits took a massive 70% hit in the aftermath of Elon Musk's ties to the Department of Government Efficiency, it's expected that the electric vehicle brand will continue to diversify its efforts into areas like robotics.
