There might be a new cast member joining the next season of The Kardashians. On Monday, Kim Kardashian introduced her new personal assistant robot to her 359 million followers on Instagram. After movies like The Terminator and I, Robot, it should come as no surprise that people have mixed emotions about robots, but Kim is clearly on board! “Meet my new friend,” Kim wrote over the clips, tagging Tesla.
While many fear robots might one day take over the human race, Elon Musk is one of the billionaires aiming to lead us into a new tech-driven era. He unveiled the Optimus "personal assistant" robot last month. As noted by TMZ, Musk previously said the Optimus units will cost somewhere between $20K and $30K.
It’s hard to know for sure, but in one of Kim’s videos, it does kind of sound like Musk himself might be speaking in the background, suggesting the South African-born billionaire may have delivered the robot personally.
© GettyAt the “We, Robot” event in October, Musk shared his bold vision for Optimus, a robot he claims can even act as a babysitter. “The Optimus will walk amongst you. You’ll be able to walk right up to them, and they will serve drinks,” he said.
At the same event, attendees like 2 Chainz had interactions with the robots, including full-blown conversations—though it was later revealed that Tesla employees were controlling the robots remotely, according to TMZ.
The event sparked some online controversy as people debated whether the Tesla team had intentionally made it seem like the robots were AI-controlled without disclosing the human operation behind them.
Kim’s video didn’t appear to involve anyone controlling the robot remotely. The clips showed Optimus performing basic tasks like finishing Kim’s heart-hand gesture, waving, and even "raising the roof," with occasional random moves thrown in.
So, judging by the video, it doesn’t look like we need to worry about this robot going rogue anytime soon. For now, it’s just raising the roof.
