Elon Musk says Optimus robot is now learning ways of humans and the world

India Today

4 days ago

Elon Musk has shared an exciting update about Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus. A video shared by Tesla shows the Optimus robot learning new tasks by watching humans do them, just like we do when watching tutorial videos. For those wondering why this matters, it's a big change from the old way of programming robots. It brings Optimus closer to acting like a human trainee. By learning from everyday actions, the robot could become far more useful and learn new things much faster.advertisementMusk says Tesla wants Optimus to study real-world videos, like those on YouTube, and then use what it sees to perform similar tasks on its own. Engineering lead at Tesla, Milan Kovac, says this breakthrough has already helped the robot pick up jobs like vacuuming, sorting items, stirring food, or taking out the rubbish.This new learning method means Optimus no longer needs detailed programming for every single task. Instead, it can copy from human examples and be told what to do with simple voice or text commands. Musk believes this could give Optimus 'task extensibility,' meaning it could learn almost anything very quickly if shown the right videos.
So far, Tesla has shown Optimus doing tasks in short clips — from cleaning and putting things together to even dancing. However, earlier demos faced criticism, as some people believed many of these actions were actually being controlled by humans rather than done by the robot itself.Despite the doubts, Musk believes this way of learning from videos is a key turning point. He has called Optimus 'the biggest product of all time' and even thinks it could become more valuable than Tesla's car business in the future. He expects the robot to be made on a large scale, with possible use in Tesla factories as soon as late 2025, or maybe earlier if progress continues quickly.What could this mean going forward? Instead of coding every single move, developers might simply have Optimus watch a set of instructions — whether it's a cooking video or a guide to folding clothes — and then simply copy it. In theory, the robot could learn just like a person: by watching, imitating, and improving.Still, many experts point out that Tesla's current robots are less skilled with fine hand movements and walking compared to leaders like Boston Dynamics. While the idea is promising, critics say there's still a long way to go before we see a truly general-purpose robot that works well in homes or workplaces.- Ends