Typically, the long run arrives in sudden methods. This 12 months marks the twentieth anniversary of Will Smith’s blockbuster sci-fi thriller, I, Robotic (now streaming on Tubi without cost), impressed by the short-story collections of the good Isaac Asimov (although the movie solely shares the title and fundamental setup in frequent). The film, set in 2035, follows a detective, Spooner (Smith), who investigates the alleged suicide of the U.S. Robotics founder. Despite the fact that the Three Legal guidelines of Robotics stop robots from immediately inflicting hurt to people, Spooner turns into more and more satisfied {that a} significantly human-like robotic, Sonny (Alan Tudyk), was accountable for the homicide.
Since I, Robotic arrived at arguably the height of Will Smith’s superstardom, it was a large box-office hit regardless of blended opinions, grossing over $350 million worldwide on a $120 million finances. Even twenty years later, it’s nonetheless seen within the business as a pivotal second for CGI, significantly for Tudyk’s movement seize work, which introduced Sonny to life and made him paradoxically really feel like essentially the most “human” character within the movie. Nevertheless, just about nobody anticipated the film’s legacy to manifest in the best way it did final month when Elon Musk unveiled a surprisingly familiar-looking invention at a press convention.
- Launch Date
- July 15, 2004
- Runtime
- 114
Did Elon Musk Rip Off I, Robotic?
In early October, Twitter/X CEO Elon Musk hosted a presentation on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, the place he unveiled the designs for a brand new self-driving Tesla automotive, dubbed the “Robovan,” in addition to the most recent iteration of the Tesla Bot, the “Optimus” line. The press convention was titled “We, Robotic,” however inside days, a number of onlookers realized the occasion shared rather more in frequent with Alex Proyas’ 2004 hit movie than the identify.
Already, the Optimus mannequin regarded a bit much like the NS5 robotic as depicted within the film, however usually, one may shrug this off as a mere coincidence. What onlookers discovered a lot tougher to disregard was how carefully the Robovan resembled the autos as seen in I, Robotic, and lots of customers on Twitter/X had a discipline day in mocking Musk’s designs. Matt Granger, an assistant to director Alex Proyas on the movie, asserted in a now-deleted publish: “I… want to provide my full-fingered f*** you to Elon and his utter lack of creativity.”
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Even Proyas himself chimed in, responding, “Hey Elon, can I’ve my designs again please?” (He additionally was a vocal critic of this 12 months’s reboot of The Crow.) This would definitely not be the primary time Musk has been accused of taking credit score for others’ work. Considered one of Tesla’s founders, Martin Eberhard, alleges that Musk had solely began as an investor within the firm earlier than pushing him out, taking on, and passing himself off as a visionary off of the work of his engineers.
Nevertheless, not everybody concerned with the film responded negatively, and a few have been even prepared to think about the chance that Musk took inspiration from I, Robotic moderately than blatantly ripping it off. Most notably, Patrick Tatopoulos, who designed Sonny, wrote in an Instagram publish, “Possibly it’s simply me, or ought to I really feel honored that Elon discovered some inspiration in my I, Robotic designs… both method it’s enjoyable to observe.”
Did I, Robotic Sign the Rise of AI?
No matter whether or not the Tesla Bot’s design deliberately ripped off Proyas’ work, the robotic’s existence itself alerts a extra fascinating implication: the long run introduced in I, Robotic won’t be up to now off. The film explored man’s long-standing concern of technological singularity, the purpose at which man’s innovations develop past his management fully, because the Three Legal guidelines in Robotics are designed to explicitly counter this chance. The Legal guidelines state {that a} robotic can’t hurt one other human being, that it should obey the orders given to it, and that it should shield its personal existence (assuming it doesn’t battle with the opposite Legal guidelines), and any crack on this basis threatens to disrupt man’s existence solely.
After all, it’s unlikely that we’ll see this particular course of occasions unfold in our lifetimes. Final month, Musk acknowledged in a press convention that he anticipated humanoid robots to surpass the human inhabitants by 2040, however a number of consultants within the discipline of robotics shortly dismissed this as unrealistic. Angelo Cangeloni, a professor of robotics on the UK College of Manchester, acknowledged: “It’s potential that given the lengthy timescale of 25 years, many technological revolutions can occur. They may be capable of do advanced duties; they are going to solely be specialised in a subset of duties. Under no circumstances humanlike.”
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Nonetheless, the concern that our innovations may develop past our management has been potent within the 2020s, significantly with the rise of synthetic intelligence internationally. It has raised moral issues within the movie business specifically; whereas AI has confirmed environment friendly at streamlining the manufacturing course of and rising effectivity in script proofreading, many concern it may scale back the necessity for jobs like video editors and visible results artists. Final 12 months’s twin writers’ and actors’ strikes have been pushed largely by the potential threats that AI may pose to jobs within the business.
Even after the strikes ended, it nonetheless stays a sensitive topic within the business. In a very chilling case of life imitating artwork, controversy arose earlier this 12 months when OpenAI’s new voice assistant, “Sky,” was seen to sound eerily much like Scarlett Johansson’s voice from Her. When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denied that Sky was supposed to sound explicitly like her, Johansson nonetheless employed authorized counsel, asserting that the corporate had contacted her particularly in September 2023. The controversy in the end led to OpenAI pausing Sky’s utilization.
I, Robotic Stays Prescient in Fascinating Methods
20 years later, it’s clear that I, Robotic has predicted the long run in lots of stunning methods. Clearly, no one anticipated Elon Musk’s current Tesla designs to so carefully resemble the characters and vehicles as seen within the movie, no matter whether or not he explicitly ripped them off.
Nevertheless, the film additionally speaks to the concern that many have over singularity and that know-how and AI may ultimately supersede the human ingredient solely. In any case, plainly the idea of the “future” many people had in our heads years in the past may lastly be beginning to meet up with actuality. I, Robotic is streaming without cost on Tubi.