Image Credit: Screenshot 
After months of tweets and teases, Elon Musk Tesla’s new humanoid Optimus robot was slammed by AI and robotics experts during its unveiling on Friday.
Despite the high-octane lights and music that surrounded it, the company’s human-shaped robot did not deliver bells and whistles at its AI Day presentation in Palo Alto, California.
‘None of this is cutting edge,’ tweeted robotics expert Cynthia Yeung. ‘Hire some PhDs and go to some robotics conferences @Tesla.’
The robot was meant to be the star for the tech giant’s conference, as Musk claimed it would ‘be a fundamental transformation for civilization as we know it.’
‘Optimus’ emerged from behind a wall with two robotic hands in a heart shape that separated to reveal the robot that had garnered so much fanfare. The bot then awkwardly moved its hands and took its first steps to rabid applause from those in the Tesla audience.
The livestream from the conference then showed the bot wave to the crowd – which by this time was in raptures – and lift up both hands to do the ‘raise the roof’ dance move.
The fun-loving bot did not impress AI researcher Filip Piekniewski, who tweeted it was ‘next level cringeworthy’ and a ‘complete and utter scam.’
Musk said it was the first time the bot had walked without a tether – to which Piekniewski wrote it would be ‘good to test falling, as this thing will be falling a lot.’
The billionaire Tesla CEO said they’re planning to sell the robot for ‘probably less than $20,000.’