The birds of the world’s richest man

But little has transcended in Spain of another of its recent novelties: Tesla presented in October in Silicon Valley the prototype of its humanoid robot Optimus. And what is new or interesting about this, if there are already dozens of companies dedicated to the creation of robots of this type? Well, two fundamental aspects. The first is its “brain”. Optimus uses the same artificial intelligence technology as their autonomous cars, which means that it not only executes the orders for which it is programmed, but can also think for itself. The second, its price: they want to produce on a large scale with a selling price of about $20,000, a figure they consider affordable for both companies and individuals. The very day of the Optimus presentation, I thought about writing an article about it. I started reading articles about robots, watching videos of Tesla presentations, press conferences, interviews… The date for the purchase of Twitter was approaching and rumors started in Silicon Valley about the potential massive layoffs and the drastic change of course of the company. The day came when Elon Musk claimed he had “set the little bird free”, after months of disputes and cross tweets about the limits of free speech on the platform. So much has happened that I can no longer talk about robots. Or yes, also about bots, because they are an important part of this whole story. But not the only one.
This is a science fiction story. Of a very intelligent, creative and lonely boy (who years later would be diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome) who read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies to understand everything that is not literal and that most people understand intuitively. And, by his own admission, he was obsessed with finding the truth and meaning of the universe. That child grew up and began to create companies to make those fantastic worlds that the movies of his childhood talked about a reality: cars that fly and drive themselves, colonies on Mars, humanoid robots in houses, the fusion of the human brain with artificial intelligence… The rest of the story we already know: Musk founded and participated in companies such as PayPal, eBay, Tesla or SpaceX and became the richest man in the world.
Something that distinguishes him from his predecessors in the title is that he has a legion of followers who idolize him and consider him a visionary. A demigod. In his favor is the naturalness -almost clumsiness- with which he expresses himself, that peculiar character in which there is no room for speeches constructed in the style of the great world leaders, an apparent discomfort for being where he is, which he overcomes with a somewhat dark sense of humor, in which many people can see themselves reflected. What is frightening is the lightness with which he speaks -and even jokes- about fundamental issues for the future of humanity, and the laughter and applause of his admirers, who do not seem to question whether their guru really knows where he is going or just has -forgive the easy joke- birds in his head. Because he is not the only one to make drastic job cuts in the cradle of technology, but he is the one who has made them in a very bad way, capriciously and without any empathy for the thousands of people he has put out of work. And because when he talks about the Optimus robot, for example, he proudly states that it will be able to take care of tasks such as cleaning the house, taking care of the sick grandmother or playing with the children, for example. “Things that no one wants to do. And that, in companies, he will be able to do everything from repetitive tasks to more complex ones as his intelligence increases. Anyone listening to this would ask the same question: if a company could buy a robot for $20,000 instead of hiring someone they would have to pay that amount annually, plus vacation, health insurance, etc., why wouldn’t they do it? His answer is, once again, vague and disappointing: “Let’s not think about whether this will affect jobs. We will have jobs for everyone. We will live in a world of plenty where everything will be so cheap that anyone will be able to afford it.” Applause from the audience.
Lately I reflect a lot on the idea of good and evil and world leaders. We are used to the image of the most powerful in their secret tower stroking a cat and thinking about how to dominate the planet. So when those Silicon Valley kids in their sneakers and hoodies started to top the Forbes list, we were relieved that people with good intentions had reached such heights of power. The problem is that good intentions are not the only relevant factor. And it is when power is so concentrated that megalomania and totalitarianism set in. The problem, in this case, is that the richest man in the world wants to make the worlds of science fiction movies that accompanied him as a child come true. In his own way and at whatever cost. “I love humanity” he says, when asked about a future that looks pretty bad, to be honest. Let me question that. Those are neither visions nor solutions. Beware of the enlightened, wherever they come from. Let us not be misled by this halo of naturalness and misunderstood genius.