The director of the 2004 sci-fi movie I, Robot has accused billionaire Elon Musk of ripping his designs for humanoid machines and self-driving vehicles.
Musk Thursday unveiled the futuristic Cybercab-from Tesla, complete with winged doors and no steering wheel or pedals-as well as new looks at its Optimus robots. The “We, Robot” showcase, a play on the title of an Isaac Asimov short story collection also caught the eye of
The filmmaker, whose film features Will Smith as a detective who suspects that the seemingly conforming robots may not be so obedient after all, accused Musk of ripping him off on X. “Hey Elon, can I have my designs back please,” Proyas wrote in a post viewed 6.4 million times.
The Australian film director said that he collaborated with a “very talented design team” on the film’s visuals after someone questioned their own originality in the comments on an Instagram post. “Elon Musk on the other hand has a not so talented design team who watched a lot of movies, including
Film production designer Patrick Tatopoulos went on to retweet his own comparison of the designs and images from the film and Tesla’s event side by side in an Instagram post. “Maybe it is just me, or should I feel honored that Elon found some inspiration in my Paranoid Android
On the internet, some people have viewed Proyas’s claims with skepticism, and at least one person claimed his own film is a rip-off. Several people responded to his post on X with photos of the female cyborg from Fritz Lang’s German expressionist film,
This is, however not the first time that people question the fact that tech companies get their inspiration from sci-fi cinema and novels, especially as companies come up with new gadgets and robotics to ride on the interest building into generative AI.
In the meantime, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, appeared to confirm comparisons that have been drawn between a flirtatious new voice unveiled for ChatGPT and a virtual assistant played by Scarlett Johansson in the 2013 film Her in a post on X in May. The company removed its “Sky” voice, which some critics claimed too closely resembled Ms Johansson, saying that it was not an “imitation.” The actress said she was left “angered” and “shocked” at the company’s apparent use of a soundalike.
