AI or human-controlled? Tesla’s Optimus robots may have failed the reverse Turing test

There is some speculation about the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Optimus humanoid robots that were circulating in the crowd at the electric vehicle maker’s robotaxi event on Thursday evening. While the Optimus robots talked to guests and took instructions, it is now unclear if they were in an autonomous AI-powered mode or controlled by humans.

Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster is one of the analysts in attendance who said he is now unsure if the Optimus robots were being controlled by employees. Others in attendance also reported signs that they were not communicating with AI. Lux Capital co-founder Josh Wolfe went a step further, saying it was a parlor trick to celebrate low latency remote control as autonomous robots.

During the robotaxi event, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said that at scale Optimus would cost about $20,000 to $30,000. “It will do anything you want… It can be a teacher, babysit your kids, walk your dog, mow your lawn, do your groceries, be your friend, serve drinks. Whatever you can think of, it will do,” he extolled.

Musk noted that Tesla (TSLA) has made a lot of progress with Optimus. “We started it with someone in a robot suit then progressed dramatically year after year, so if you extrapolate this you’re really going to have something spectacular. Something anyone could own. You could have your own personal R2D2 or C3PO.”

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were down 7.95% in Friday afternoon trading.