Elon Musk stated that Tesla's humanoid robotics could one day work on Mars.
One Twitter user inquired if the rockets would be mass-produced and shipped to the planet. Musk replied, "Hopefully."
Some believe Musk's announcement was a mirror of Isaac Asimov’s book series, "I, Robot."
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday said the company's artificial-intelligence bots may one day be able to work on Mars, a vision seemingly ripped from the pages of sci-fi novels.
Musk announced Thursday that Tesla was developing a Tesla Bot that could co-opt some AI it has created for its electric cars.
SpaceX is Musk's other company. It focuses on sending humans back to the Moon and then to Mars.
One Twitter user asked Musk whether the bots would be mass produced and sent to the Red Planet as labourers. Musk replied, "Hopefully."
Musk replied to the tweet by saying that his bot project was similar to the efforts of Isaac Asimov's fictional scientist in "I, Robot", a series that started publication in 1950. These stories feature humanoid robots working alongside humans.
On Friday, a Twitter user compared Musk to Lawrence Robertson, a character who cofounded U.S. Robotics and Mechanical Men. This fictional company built humanoid robotics.
Robertson stated in "I, Robot" that the idea was to get people used to working with one robot. Once they understood its immense potential, they would want more.
Musk stated that Thursday's speech was a "profound application for the economy" and that "in the future physical work will be an option."
Tesla stated that the Bot would be equipped with cameras to see its surroundings and use its self-driving software for navigation. It will also have a Dojo chip, a supercomputer that focuses on machine learning.
Read More: Elon Musk's tiny house was built by a startup. It has a waiting list of 50,000 people, even though it isn't yet running and it has only built three homes.
Musk, when he announced the Tesla robots Thursday, seemed to be acknowledging concerns that the robots could turn violent and said most people would "overpower" these 125-pound robots.
He said, "We're setting the system so that it is at a mechanic level, at an physical level, you are able to run away from it, and most likely, overpower it."
Asimov stated in "I, Robot" that the public was naturally afraid of AI robots becoming violent. He called this concern "The Frankenstein Complex" by one of his characters.
Asimov stated in the novel that "far too many Hollywood movies depicted them as unstoppable weaponry that, invariably turned upon their creators." "Others panicked at the thought that robots could replace humans in usefulness, jobs, and even procreation."
