Simmer-Down Sunday: Dawning Of The Age Of AI

Joseph Hargett

3 years ago

Elon Musk AI Stuff Meme

Tesla’s Optimus Prime Time

When the moon is in the Tesla’s house, and Jupiter aligns with Musk… Then robots will guide the planets, and AI will steer the stars…

This is the dawning of an age of Aquarius — er, abundance!

Can we save the dawning for a little later? I’m hitting snooze again.

Oh, maybe you’d prefer a robot butler to come wake you up? Maybe even make your bed for ya? What, is the dawning age of our new AI overlords harshing your mellow?

I know, the robotic future the Jetsons promised me is a bit behind schedule.

But according to Elon Musk — who the Jetsons didn’t quite warn me about either — Tesla’s (Nasdaq: TSLA) new humanoid robot might be robo-moonwalking your way sooner than previously expected.

Originally teased last year, the Optimus AI-powered humanoid is supposed to carry out whatever work humans don’t want to do — manual labor and menial tasks and whatnot. Supposedly.

This would free up humans to do, well … ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What it is we were actually supposed to be doing again? Praising the sun? Gathering sustenance? I heard “play another round of CIV,” but that’s just me.

Anyway, with robot servants close at hand, the Musk man says these metal-handed menaces will usher in … huzzah … a great “age of abundance!” It’ll be a revolution greater than the Tesla EV itself! Supposedly.

But for all y’all with visions in your head of rampant AI uprisings and robot enslavement, fear not:

As you see Optimus develop, everyone’s going to make sure it’s safe. No Terminator stuff or that kind of thing. — Elon Musk

Oh good. Some reassurance.

Never mind that this is the same guy who, in a previous statement on the AI bot project, said: “It probably won’t work.” And I think that’s one prediction out of this robot battle that might actually come true — Elon’s 2023 production timeline notwithstanding.

This has gotten a bit heavy — can we have a cheeky Quote of the Week to, uh, end the week?

Oh, indeed! Behold: As soon as the AI robot news dropped, so too came the anti-AI bot attention:

Tesla has not even (after years of effort) come close to reliably solving one relatively simple task (driving); to claim that a robot that has never been shown publicly will solve all of human tasks in the next year or two is preposterous.

He can ship whatever he wants next year, since he is the boss, but there is no way that version one will come anywhere near his ambitions, if it is released that quickly. — Gary Marcus, AI researcher

Given how much we’ve followed Tesla’s previous antics, you Great Ones should know that Musk’s flashier teases (don’t think too much into that) are used to either promote something different entirely … or to cover up something else entirely.

Like when his social media dreams were “conveniently” posted around the same time as Tesla’s Shanghai plant closure, for instance. Just saying.

In this case, Elon’s AI bot fanfare helped kick off the opening day hype train for Tesla’s new Austin, Texas assembly plant. Honestly, that production news would have been an attention-grabbing story in and of itself. But this is Elon Musk here, so … robots.

How do you personally feel about AI bots, Great Ones? Share your thoughts with us at: GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com.

On one side we have the Elon-esque “everything will be just fiiiiine” crowd, and on the other side … something a bit more apocalyptic. But what’s actually going on in the, umm, non-terrifying AI market today?

Well … Adam O’Dell says there’s a little-known stock at the center of all this AI action.

In fact, this small-cap stock is currently trading for less than it costs to buy a tank of gas — giving everyday investors the chance to get in on the ground floor of what could become an $80 TRILLION industry over the next 10 years.

Click here for Adam’s “no Terminator stuff” look at AI.

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