A Brief History of False Technological Demonstrations.
Since the famous Mechanical Turk to Elon Musk’s remote-controlled robots, clever technology vendors have managed to deceive us on several occasions.
Elon Musk has recently come under criticism due to a series of unusual claims, and he really should have been called out for many more. At Tesla's We, Robot event, the Optimus robot serving drinks to attendees was not as autonomous as Musk had proclaimed. Several reports indicate that the robots were controlled by humans via remote controls. This situation seems to reflect an attempt by Musk to present Tesla as a cutting-edge company when, in reality, it faces considerable challenges.
However, the history of misleading product demonstrations is not new and dates back to ancient times, even to the Napoleonic era. Musk seems to be repeating a trick that has existed for centuries. A famous example is the Mechanical Turk, a 19th-century mechanical chess player that concealed a chess master inside. This device was a major success in its time, maintaining its deception for over 80 years.
Another notable case is Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, who during the iPhone launch in 2007 used multiple carefully staged prototypes to avoid technical problems. The versions he showcased were designed to perform a series of predefined actions, giving the impression that Jobs was freely navigating the device.
Likewise, Google has also fallen into the realm of misleading demonstrations. At its 2018 I/O event, CEO Sundar Pichai showcased a voice assistant that supposedly made live calls to book appointments at a beauty salon and a restaurant. It was later discovered that those conversations were not as spontaneous as they appeared.
More recently, a Google video about its Gemini AI showed questionable editing techniques that distorted the reality of the product. Meanwhile, Tesla's autonomous driving system has come under scrutiny, with multiple lawsuits claiming that customers were deceived into thinking their vehicles could drive themselves, which has resulted in fatal accidents.
In light of all this, it seems Musk should consider himself fortunate that, in comparison, the worst behavior of the Optimus robot, which was remotely controlled, was simply dancing and serving drinks.
