Will intelligent robots replace humans?

Recently, Elon Musk announced at a shareholder meeting that Tesla will begin limited production of Optimus (Optimus Prime) humanoid robots in 2025. Next year, Tesla's super factory will deploy over 1000 Optimus robots, and the robots have stronger computing power and higher production efficiency than humans. Humanoid robots will become the mainstay of industry and may sell Optimus externally by the end of 2025. Tesla aims to produce 1 billion humanoid robots annually, accounting for over 10% of the market share. He also stated that the cost of Optimus is controlled at around $10000, and if sold at $20000 per unit, Tesla will earn substantial profits and its market value will significantly increase. At that time, Tesla's market value will be 10 times that of the current most valuable company.

Optimus is a humanoid robot developed by Tesla. Its design is based on the human body, and its behavior is similar to that of humans. The robot adopts the same visual perception as Tesla cars, uses cameras to input data, and performs calculations using neural networks. Optimus Prime is approximately 173 centimeters tall, weighs 125 pounds, walks at a speed of 5 miles per hour, can carry up to 45 pounds of objects, and is equipped with a screen on its head for users to access useful information. This humanoid robot combines Tesla's AI technology with a powerful DOJO D1 supercomputer chip, and has hands as flexible as humans.

At present, there are two Optimus robots in Tesla's super factory that have been trained to accurately package battery cells in Tesla's factory. This process requires very precise actions and low fault tolerance, and the neural network will automatically locate the next idle slot. Optimus can also autonomously recover from failures, and the rate of manual intervention continues to decline. Not only that, Optimus can now walk in the office, and the R&D team is conducting further optimization work to make Optimus move faster and able to cope with harsher terrain, with more updates coming soon.

As Optimus is about to land, it has also sparked speculation about whether intelligent robots will completely replace humans. Compared to humans, although robots can work tirelessly 24 hours a day and save a lot of costs, they also have some problems. One reason is that robots do not possess human thinking abilities and are unable to perform creative tasks such as design, artistic creation, and independent scientific research; Secondly, the current research and development, use, and maintenance costs of intelligent robots are high, and most small and medium-sized enterprises do not use robots to replace manual labor; Thirdly, the intelligence of robots in water is not yet mature. Taking Tesla factory as an example, although robots can complete some repetitive tasks after training, according to relevant reports, in 2021, a robot "attacked" an engineer at Tesla factory. At that time, a robot processing aluminum car parts suddenly pressed down on an engineer, and its metal claws scratched the engineer's back and arm; Fourthly, if robots replace human work entirely, it will cause a large number of people to lose their jobs and bring a burden to society. At the same time, workers no longer have a source of income, their consumption ability decreases, and businesses will face sales difficulties.

In recent years, many large enterprises have achieved automated production and significantly improved production efficiency. In the future, artificial intelligence technology will become increasingly mature, and intelligent robots may replace most manual labor positions. However, the management and maintenance of robots ultimately need to be completed by humans. Therefore, no matter how artificial intelligence and robotics technology develop, robots cannot completely replace humans.