A high-profile robotics expert thinks Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence ambitions are just a pipe dream, Fortune reports.
Rodney Brooks is the co-founder of iRobot and the creator of Roomba, a home sweeping robot. He recently wrote that despite Tesla’s stated goal of having robots perform the same tasks as humans through its product Optimus, it’s actually impossible for robots to perform the same tasks as humans.
“In my opinion, it is pure fantasy to believe that this will happen anytime within a few decades,” Brooks wrote on his personal blog. “But many predict it will happen in two years, while the more conservative ‘hypnotists’ think it will have a significant economic impact in five years.”
Brooks believes a major bottleneck is the huge difference in touch sensitivity between humans and current robots. He believes that the difference in flexibility also poses serious challenges to humanoid robots trying to replace humans. As expected from the former CTO behind Roomba, he still sees use for specialized robots in a variety of form factors.
Despite all the predictions, Brooks’ iRobot filed for bankruptcy in December.
While AI brings many benefits—like robots that can cook and clean for us—its drawbacks are also significant. Even the prospect of mainstream robot workers would have serious economic implications, and the problems don’t stop there.
These robots are powered by artificial intelligence models and require a lot of energy to build. When this energy is produced from coal, oil or natural gas, it produces atmospheric pollution. Early indications are that the explosion of various forms of artificial intelligence (bots, text, images, and video) is having a significant impact on pollution.
In addition to the Optimus challenges Tesla has faced so far, the company is also facing difficulties with sales figures for 2025 and legal disputes over self-driving cars.
Regardless of the technical feasibility of humanoid robots, Brooks is particularly cynical about the investment climate in this nascent industry and makes bold predictions about its future.
“A lot of money will disappear going into trying to squeeze performance, any performance, out of today’s humanoid robots,” he said in a blog post. “But these robots will disappear quickly and be easily forgotten.”
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