AI breakthroughs in robotics won’t change your life any time soon

MIT Technology Review · 6 days ago · 23 ● 3 sources

Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot became a central focus of robotics hype, with Tesla’s CEO predicting public sales by the end of 2027 and arguing it could automate most human labor for about $20,000 per robot. Researchers pushed back that today’s language- and vision-based AI still can’t reliably handle the real world’s variability, citing the gap between making a robot that looks human and making one that moves with comparable physical skill. The debate is shifting robotics development toward evaluating approaches like robot policies trained with vision-language-action systems and alternatives such as “world model” methods to improve generality and reliability rather than relying on timelines alone.