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At this year’s Tesla’s AI Day event, Elon Musk announced wanting to launch a humanoid robot next year. This so-called ‘Tesla Bot’ will take care of boring, repetitive and dangerous work from humans. The robot will have the size of an average human (1.70 meters tall and weighing 56 kilograms) and could be used in a wide variety of scenarios, from factory work to grocery shopping. This rapid development could be feasible because of the technologies in autonomous Tesla cars that can be used for the Tesla Bot (Sweney & Hern, 2021).

This development can have profound implications for the global economy. Since these bots can help reduce labour shortages. On top of that, humanoid robots can be put to work for as long as desired. Subsequently, these robots have the potential to replace humans when it comes to labour. Which could lead to unemployment for unskilled workers. The answer to this potential problem is universal basic income (Sweney & Hern, 2021).

Universal Basic Income is a concept where ‘the income paid by a political community to every member of the society on an individual basis without any work requirements’. This income can be generated by the labour of humanoid robots like the Tesla Bot and artificial intelligence solutions. This would end the need for humans to work, which would result in drastic changes in human life. Quality of life and life expectancy would for example be improved, since there is no need for humans to work boring, repetitive and dangerous jobs (Van Parijs, 2013).

If Elon Musk will deliver on his promises is something we will see with time. However, I appreciate the initiative taken to use R&D time for something that will not only benefit businesses but also our society. Humanoid robots could be the trigger for utopian concepts like Universal Basic Income if it is executed correctly and if society embraces this radical change. And that’s something to get excited about.

References

Sweney, M., & Hern, A. (2021, August 20). Humanoid ‘Tesla Bot’ likely to launch next year, says Elon Musk. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/20/humanoid-tesla-bot-likely-to-launch-next-year-says-elon-musk

Van Parijs, P. (2013). “The Universal Basic Income: Why Utopian Thinking Matters, and How Sociologists Can Contribute to It.” Politics & Society 41(2): 171-182.

5/5 (1)

We probably all know cyborgs from popular culture. The fusion between man and machine is often seen in science fiction content. Neuralink, a fresh tech company founded by Elon Musk among others, is going to take cyborgs from science fiction and bring them to reality (“Cyborg,” 2021).

Neuralink is developing an implantable Brain Machine Interface (BMI) that wants to connect brains with computers. The short-term aim is to treat serious brain diseases with the initial goal being to help people with paralysis. To put it simply, Neuralink wants to give these people a way to communicate with text or speech synthesis without them having to move a muscle (Engineering with the Brain, n.d.).

In the longer run, the aim is to enhance the human brain. This could potentially mean that humans that opt for the Neuralink BMI could get drastically more intelligent, since theoretically this brain can effortlessly communicate with computers, the cloud or other brains that carry the same interface (Masunaga, 2017).

Neuralink and their BMI technology sounds very promising. It will hopefully be the big breakthrough in neuroscience and will help cure millions of humans around the world with brain disease. The potential human enhancement also sounds like a solution for potential Artificial intelligence (AI) conflict with humans. Because some fear that AI will outpace humans and subsequently will take over the world. However, instead of pitting humans against AI, Neuralink brings humans and AI together. This fusion could potentially be the next step in human evolution. Transforming homo sapiens to cyborgs (Makridakis, 2017)(Engineering with the Brain, n.d.)(Masunaga, 2017).

Lastly, I want to bring up a concern that I have with BMI technologies. The first humans with a BMI will have large advantages over humans without a BMI. And because this new technology will likely be expensive, the wealthier humans would be the first to adopt it. This difference in brain bandwidth could disadvantage humans that are less wealthy, increasing inequality between humans. To prevent this potential problem, governments across the world should consider Neuralink a potential basic need for all humans and should timely introduce proper legislation.

References

Cyborg. (2021). In Cambridge Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cyborg

Engineering with the Brain. (n.d.). Https://Neuralink.Com/Applications/. https://neuralink.com/applications/

Makridakis, S. (2017). The forthcoming Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution: Its impact on society and firms. Futures, 90, 46-60.
Masunaga, S. (2017, November 20). A quick guide to Elon Musk’s new brain-implant company, Neuralink. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-elon-musk-neuralink-20170421-htmlstory.html