this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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The director of 2004 sci-fi film I, Robot has accused billionaire Elon Musk of copying his designs for humanoid machines and self-driving vehicles.

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 106 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Much as I hate this guy, guessing he didn't design it and it wouldn't be hard for a humanoid robot to end up looking pretty similar to an I-robot.

Be nice to keep attention to this ass out of the news unless it's raising awareness to the real harm he is doing.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I compared the Cybercab to the I robot car.

They don't share the same design. All lines are different. Maybe the side windows are similar.

[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 72 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I don't see the connection. The Elonbot is about as generic a humanoid robot design can be and the I, Robot one looks cool, has a face, and isn't controlled by a human as part of some sort of investment con.

The self driving cars has no connection either. The Elonmobile looks like a smooth car and has a degree of autonomous driving and the I, Robot cars look cool, can drive up vertical surfaces, and hardly ever kills their occupants.

[–] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's because he called the event 'We, Robot'. So it's fairly obvious that he wants to draw parallels between Tesla's humanoids and the robots within the movie.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 4 points 1 month ago

That's a problem though because the movie isn't in a piece of original work. It's based on the book by the same title by Isaac Asimov. I assume it's out of copy right now not really sure.

Anyway the point is neither the movie nor anything Elon Musk may or may not have done is the original work and since the original work has been replicated many times it's fairly obvious no one owns the copyright. Much like how no one owns the copyright to the tripods in war of the worlds anymore which is why there's been so many adaptations over the years.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah, they look nothing alike side by side.

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 56 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They look like humans, I don’t Think Irobot invented humans.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I did actually, and I'm suing them.

[–] InnerScientist@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

checkmate atheists

[–] FitzTheBastard@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Humanoid robots look like other humanoid robots? This is a nothing burger.

[–] GrumpyBike1020@monero.town 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sure but did u click thru? The car designs are much more questionable

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They're really not. Dude didn't invent wing doors.

[–] GrumpyBike1020@monero.town 1 points 1 month ago

Sure. But like take all of it together. Event was called “We, Robot”. Possibly influenced by the movie “I, Robot”? Maybe. Next the humanoid robot with white features. Ok fine. Humanoid shapes are humanoid! Not so controversial. Then the car. Gull wing doors! Inb4 delorean and lamborghini. Ok fine. But the capped wheels!? Ok fine its a car they look like cars. Finally the bus looking thing?? Thats weird, looks a lot like the I, Robot bus thing. Take all this together? HMMMMMMM

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 1 month ago

gulag for everybody who thinks this is news. The guy is literally a fascist and we are supposed to be angry about how his humanoid robots look kinda human? who tf cares

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 month ago

Looks more like the mitchells vs the machines to me.

Robot pic

[–] xploit@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Lmao...now if Honda or whichever Japanese manufacturer is still regularly pushing these out came out and sued, I'd be more inclined to think they have some weight behind the accusation because I'm sure I've seen something similar before. Then again as others pointed out, they all look similar, even more so once you try to hide the wiring, hydraulics etc

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Can we get a break from Elon posts in here or is that too much to ask? Guess I’ll just have to turn back on my filter. it’s ridiculous

[–] sepi@piefed.social 12 points 1 month ago (4 children)

elon doesn't have an original thought

[–] ISOmorph@feddit.org 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Using a 2 seater with limited storage space to taxi people around is pretty original. Not good, but original.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago

Even BMW has come out with a more original car design for an automated vehicle that has the seats facing each other and a table in the middle for a more communal experience. It also had a screen instead of a front window, because obviously if the car's driving itself you don't need to be able to see outside.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There are so many reasons to dunk on Elon, but this isn't one of them. Generic looking humanoid robots isn't "ripping off" I, Robot. It's literally the most common depiction of futuristic robots around.

You wanna dunk on Musk? Talk about how his robots were remote controlled with humans talking through them. Talk about how most of his family has disowned him and refuses to have anything to do with him. Talk about how he has Trump's dick firmly in his mouth because he might be in hot water over supplying equipment to Russia and might face prosecution if Trump isn't elected.

But this just screams of low-hanging Musk-bait, where journalists will write anything negative about him knowing that those who have hate-boners for the guy will eat up whatever crap they shit out, even if it doesn't make sense. It's like going "Elon Musk ate cereal for breakfast! What a fucking loser!"

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 0 points 1 month ago

If you're building a robot then the humanoid shape is a fairly good shape to use because the world is already designed for things of that shape. Doors, corridors, and staircases all assume a bipedal body of about 6 ft high. So inevitably robots are going to look humanoid.

If the robot is designed to work underwater then it probably isn't going to look humanoid it'll probably look like a fish but I don't think the fish can sue.

[–] mipadaitu@lemmy.world -2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

At least he steals his ideas from good sci-fi.

Wonder who he pays to summarize them for him.

[–] hungprocess@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

from a shitty movie extremely loosely based on good sci-fi

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Do the eyes glow red if it becomes self aware?

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 8 points 1 month ago

That's what futuristic cars always look like. I don't think you can sue for unoriginality.

[–] cerement 5 points 1 month ago

more of a miracle he didn’t copy Johnny Cab …

[–] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

Reminds me of “Detroit: Become Human”.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

They were humans via remote body anyway. Who cares. Next time they have one of these bullshit demos, ask it a complicated math question like 129473626 * 6363. See how fast they answer then.

[–] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Amazon mechanical Turk service.

In the future your robot waiter will be a Asian working for 6 cents an hour.

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

To be fair, if they're driven by an LLM I would still expect it to be wrong.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

God is suing both