Elon Musk showed off bartending automatons at a Tesla event. But some attendees claim the automatons are controlled by people.

Elon Musk revealed a humanoid robotic device in 2021 that was actually a man in a suit. We saw a prototype of the robot a year later. It was no longer a man in a suit. We thought it was "kinda neat" because of its ability to walk slowly without falling. Musk showed off a squad of robots at a Tesla event last night called We, Robot. He also made some wild promises about their capabilities.

Musk said that the robot would be able to perform any task you wish. "It could be a teacher, or watch your children. It can mow your lawn or get your groceries. It will just be your friend, and it can serve drinks, or do anything else you think of. It's going to be awesome. I think it will be the biggest ever product, no matter what kind. I think that everyone will want an Optimus buddy. That's eight billion people. Maybe two.

"One thing we wanted to demonstrate tonight was that Optimus wasn't a canned video. It's not walled in. The Optimus robots walk among you... They'll be able walk right up to you, and serve drinks at the bars."

Optimus, a robot that serves drinks at a bar, was in fact present during the afterparty. There was one small catch: According Jalopnik, Tesla employees were controlling the bartending robot and other robots at the event.

As far as I'm aware, this is not confirmed, but the naturalistic movements and conversations with partygoers give out extremely strong "remote-control" vibes. Other social media users had similar reactions.

Musk did not mention during his presentation the robots are AI-powered or autonomous in any way. He would have made this point loud and clear if it was true. Musk may not be committed to honesty and truth, but his history suggests otherwise. I can imagine that it would be easy to spin bullshit with dozens of people walking around these things. It's possible that the company is trying to avoid revealing too much information about its robots, or encourage speculation. But given Musk's history of making big promises and not keeping them, I don’t think this is likely.

Is it possible that bipedal autonomous robots will walk among us one day, walking our dogs, picking up our groceries and mowing down our children? Why not? Is it possible that this will happen in the next few years, or even next year? I wouldn't bet my money on it, just like I wouldn't bet money on fully autonomous self-driving vehicles or people on Mars.

I've contacted Tesla for more information about the robots that were at the event last night. I will update this post if I get a response.