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Elon Musk's New Optimus Robot Demo Is So Painful It Will Make You Wince

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Hot off of proudly announcing that he had replaced 4,000 people with AI at his company, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff posted a video of Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, calling it a "productivity game-changer."

However, going by the 52-second clip, the carmaker has a long way to go until it can successfully have AI-powered bipedal robots replace human jobs.

Is this really what will make up a whopping 80 percent of Tesla's value, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised in a tweet earlier this week? In an apparent effort to shift the company's priorities from slumping car sales, the mercurial entrepreneur has doubled down on AI and its humanoid robot in an apparent effort to stop investors from running for the hills.

But Benioff's latest demo leaves a lot to be desired, suggesting the company is still a long way out from realizing Musk's goal of having the robot catapult Tesla's market value to a dubiously high $25 trillion, let alone complete the most basic of human tasks.

Elon’s Tesla Optimus 🤖🔥 is here! Dawn of the physical Agentforce revolution, tackling human work for $200K–$500K. Productivity game-changer! Congrats @elonmusk, and thank you for always being so kind to me! 🚀 #Tesla #Optimus pic.twitter.com/bA5IYIylE1 — Marc Benioff (@Benioff) September 3, 2025

"Hey Optimus, do you know where I can get a Coke?" Benioff asked the golden, life-sized robot.

"Sorry, I don't..." Optimus answered, before cutting itself off, "...have real-time info, but I can take you to the kitchen if you want to check for a Coke there."

After the pair talked over each other for a bit, Optimus finally lurched into action, awkwardly waddling down the aisle of a nondescript office environment.

"I think we need to give it a bit more room," Musk could be heard saying off-camera. "Right now, it's kind of paranoid about space."

"It'll be able to walk a lot faster, too," he added, in an apparent attempt to reassure Benioff as the robot slowly lumbered down the carpeted hallway.

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