Elon Musk Says Tesla's Optimus Can Learn Tasks By Watching YouTube Videos Just Like A Human

Tesla Inc. TSLA is making significant strides in humanoid robotics, with CEO Elon Musk revealing that the company’s Optimus robot is developing the ability to learn tasks by watching videos, similar to human learning patterns.

What Happened: In a recent interview with CNBC at Tesla headquarters, Musk explained that while Optimus currently learns through human demonstration using motion capture technology, the company is close to achieving a major breakthrough.

“I think there’s certain threshold breakthroughs that we think we can achieve, where if Optimus can watch videos, YouTube videos or how-to videos or whatever, and based on that video, just like a human can, learn how to do that thing,” Musk said. “Then you really have a task extensibility that is dramatic, because it can learn anything very quickly. So I think we’ll get there in the next year.”

This development was reinforced by Tesla Optimus Engineering lead Milan Kovac, who elaborated on X: “One of our goals is to have Optimus learn straight from internet videos of humans doing tasks. Those are often 3rd person views captured by random cameras.”

Kovac added that “many new skills are emerging through this process,” which can be activated via voice or text commands and run on “a single neural network on the bot.”

See Also: Elon Musk’s xAI Plans $30–$40 Billion GPU Buy Near Memphis — Gene Munster Says Its A ‘Good Day’ To Be A Nvidia Salesperson

Why It Matters: Despite these advancements, Tesla faces significant production challenges. During Tesla’s first quarter earnings call, Musk revealed that China’s new export restrictions on rare earth magnets—critical components in Optimus actuators—have disrupted the supply chain.

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“We’re working through that with China. Hopefully, we’ll get a license to use the rare earth magnets. China wants some assurances that these are not used for military purposes, which, obviously, they’re not,” Musk explained.

The humanoid robot market represents massive potential, with Morgan Stanley projecting a $5 trillion global market by 2050. Musk believes humanoid robots will become “the biggest product ever” with “insatiable” demand, aiming to produce a million robots by 2030.

Image Via Shutterstock

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