The robot will walk among you

Let's slow the heck down there, Sparky.

Over the weekend, Elon Musk revealed updates on a bunch of products, like robovans, robotaxis, and self-driving cars. Wall Street didn't believe his timelines, I guess, because Tesla stock immediately dropped 25%.

That said, he provided a brief update on something that I think is really important and that we as a society need to get way out in front of, and that almost nobody is even thinking about.

I'm talking about the robots. Let's embed the Twitter video as best I can (Twitter and Substack don't play well with each other, but I think I've got a workaround; if you can see the image below, click on it to see the video.)

As you can see, these are (or would be) humanoid-looking, and pretty impressive -- although just in terms of the demonstration, they don't seem anywhere near as advanced as some of the back-flipping videos from Boston Dynamics and the like.

And, while some people seemed to be convinced that similar videos of the robots interacting with humans suggested they're almost ready for production, I think it's about 99.9% certain that what we were actually seeing were human-controlled (via remote) demonstration models.

Again, Musk has a history of very optimistic timelines. His rosy projection Friday evening was that they'd begin producing the Optimus at scale in 2026 or 2027, that it would sell for between $20,000 and $30,000.

He also suggested we'll see 1 billion of these types of robots operating around the world by the 2040s. That sort of seems like the distant future, but it's about the same distance in time to now than the introduction of the iPhone in 2008.

"It can be a teacher, or babysit your kids, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks," Musk said, adding: "It's going to be awesome. I think this will be the biggest product ever of any kind ... The Optimus robot will walk among you."

OK, let's focus on those last seven words: "The Optimus robot will walk among you."

There are so many issues with this short statement. Maybe we can start with the idea that three years ago, when Musk rolled out the first prototype version of Optimus (which, no joke, was just a person in a robot suit, but it gave him a prop to talk about his ideas), the proposed dimensions of Optimus were:

• Humanoid form.

• 5 feet 8 inches tall, 135 pounds (height was explicit; weight was an estimate).

• "Friendly, of course. You can run away from it and most likely overpower it."

At the time, I wrote about how this was insane. For one thing, lots of media picked up a Tesla talking point that this meant the Optimus would be slightly shorter than the average American.

But that's only true if you define Americans as “men only.” Because the average height of an American woman is about 5 feet 4 inches tall.

(I actually got a fair amount of hate email after writing about that on Inc.com as I recall, maybe in part because I suggested the fact that the Tesla Optimus design team is all-men or close to it might have something to do with the height decision.)

Anyway, fast-forward to the thing Tesla pretended to roll out last week, and we can now see that Optimus has grown at least three inches, to 5 feet 11 inches tall!

No fanfare, no announcement, just a plan to unleash 1 billion AI-powered humanoid robots that would be taller than about 75% of American men and 95% of American women on our society.

Unfortunately, we have a history of our laws and society lagging far behind consumer technology.

Automobiles; the consumer internet; heck, don't get me started on crypto.

But, since nobody else seems to be rolling out a “model law” that states or other governments could adopt, here are few ideas that go far beyond the "three laws of robotics" that science fiction writer Isaac Asimov came up with all those years ago:

1. No creation of robots that are reasonably intended to pass for humans.

2. All robots must have a universal shutdown command, so that any human can turn it off instantly if needed.

3. No development or deployment of consumer robots in public that cannot be easily physically overcome by a small child.

4. Robots must yield to humans in all situations. We can tweak this, but I'm telling you: I am not waiting in line behind someone else's humanoid robot in a grocery store.

5. Manufacturers, distributors, and owners are strictly liable for all harm created by their robots.

6. And the bare minimum: All robots must be registered like we register cars, and all of their movements and interactions must be recorded and stored.

Some of these might sound pretty intense, but I'd rather start from that standpoint and let the industry explain why something less strict would be sufficient.

The saving grace I see here is that most people have not focused even a tiny bit on the idea that there could be humanoid robots at scale among us within a relatively short timeframe, but when they are presented with it, they seem to say: Um, not so fast.

Even at the Tesla event, if you watch the video, when Musk predicts that "the Optimus robot will walk among you," the crowd reaction is mixed at best, and you can make out a lot of people yelling, "No!!!!!"

And, one guy on Musk-owned Twitter got more than 18 million views simply by stating: "Already can't stand these [effing] clankers."

(Kind of funny that we already have a slur for robots.)

Anyway, I'm not quite yelling that myself. But "slow the heck down" sounds like the bare minimum we should be asking for.

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7 other things …

• In a symbolic display of anger, North Korea on Tuesday blew up the northern sections of unused road and rail routes that once linked it with South Korea, with the rivals exchanging threats days after the North claimed that the South flew drones over its capital Pyongyang. (AP)

• Americans continue to register record-low trust in the mass media, with 31% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” similar to last year’s 32%. Americans’ trust in the media -- such as newspapers, television and radio -- first fell to 32% in 2016 and did so again last year. (Gallup)

• Erik and Lyle Menendez’s extended family is expected to gather outside a Los Angeles courthouse Wednesday as the district attorney weighs whether the brothers, found guilty of killing their parents almost three decades ago, should be resentenced and possibly released. (NBC News)

• The Internet Archive is back online in a read-only state after a cyberattack brought down the digital library and Wayback Machine last week. A data breach and DDoS attack kicked the site offline on October 9th, with a user authentication database containing 31 million unique records also stolen in recent weeks. (The Verge)

• Former President Donald Trump used an appearance before the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday to deliver a strong defense for using tariffs on foreign imports to grow jobs and the economy, dismissing criticism it could lead to consumer price increases and a resurgence of inflation if he is elected. The Republican presidential nominee also warned that the country is on the verge of World War III. (Chicago Tribune)

• Alex Murdaugh has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a teen killed in a boat crash involving Murdaugh's youngest son that prosecutors said provoked the disgraced South Carolina attorney to later kill his wife and their son who wrecked the boat. The agreement by an insurer to pay the $500,000 policy Alex Murdaugh had on the boat ends the wrongful death suit that ultimately pried open Murdaugh's finances and laid bare his schemes to steal millions from his clients and his law firm. (Yahoo News)

• Walmart’s hometown becomes America’s next real estate hot spot. (NY Post)

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Thanks for reading. See you in the comments!