Science fiction has always been a genre intended to inspire and warn us in equal measure, and 2004's I, Robot is no exception. Set in 2035, a future where autonomous cars are the norm, legions of robots have taken over menial tasks, and Converse All-Star sneakers are still as fresh as ever, director Alex Proyas's sloppy action movie was a solid action movie. hit upon release and has aged surprisingly well – especially as our reality takes greater and greater steps towards a similar status quo. It's easy to imagine Del Spooner, Will Smith's old-school cop, looking at our own reality and stubbornly rolling his eyes at our acceptance of and overreliance on artificial intelligence. Of course not quite at the level of technological advancement imagined by Proyas and screenwriters Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman (not to mention famed author Isaac Asim himself, who wrote the various books the film draws from), but we're not too far off either.
If only we had better and more creative technology visionaries at the helm. As a prime example of truth being stranger than fiction, “I, Robot” is once again in the spotlight… but for the silliest of reasons. If anyone truly believes that he will lead us into this version of the future, it is Elon Musk. The public figure is no stranger to grand ambitions, having acquired companies such as SpaceX, Tesla, and even X (formerly known as Twitter), while promising to lead humanity to the “next step.” Instead of a colony on Mars, autonomous cars safely taking over our roads, and a social media platform that is a haven for free speech, we are instead left with three controversial companies with a laundry list of problems and a rogue billionaire who seems to think he is Tony Stark.
Well, let's just say that Iron Man wasn't the one who was accused of blatantly knocking off the designs of much smarter people. In a new tweet, Proyas mockingly called out Musk for stealing various “I, Robot” projects, and it's hard to disagree with him. Musk's transformation into Justin Hammer is truly complete, people.
Elon Musk's latest Tesla designs look awfully familiar…
Oh, such delicious irony. Perhaps the most famous scene from I, Robot, which continues to go viral to this day, would be the moment between Will Smith's cynical detective and the incredibly intelligent robot Sonny (voiced and voiced by Alan Tudyk), during which the two debate the nuances of art, inspiration, and creativity. So it's obvious that Elon Musk took notice of the dazzling visuals from the 2004 movie, tucked them in the back of his mind, and then shamelessly copied them when it came time to design various prototypes at Tesla. Musk's car company recently unveiled a series of far-reaching concepts at an event literally titled “We, Robot,” ranging from autonomous bartending robots (which weren't really that “autonomous” after all.), a new “Cybercab” taxi, and a “Robovan” – all brazenly similar to their “I, Robot” counterparts. Check out Proyas' tweet below, accompanied by his zinger: “Hey Elon, can I please have my designs back?” and it quickly went viral:
Hey Elon, can I have my designs back please? #ElonMusk #Elon_Musk pic.twitter.com/WPgxHevr6E
— Alex Proyas (@alex_proyas) October 13, 2024
Of course, given Proyas' established history of being completely unfiltered (he recently questioned the remake of “The Raven”), it's no surprise that the outspoken filmmaker entered this debate with fire. It helps that there's certainly some validity to this, and explains just how derivative Musk's “innovation” projects have always been. I apologize to all Cybertruck owners and state that such cases do not bring any benefit to these ugly looking death traps. On the other hand, the rest of us can have fun guessing which random sci-fi movie from the last 20 years Musk will try to rip off next.
