MUSK BE KIDDING
Elon Musk will pay you ‘$100,000’ a year to pretend to be a robot and list of duties includes bizarre 7-hour robo-walk
See what Musk's Optimus bot is already capable of in the video above
ELON Musk is on the hunt for someone to pretend to be a robot and walk around all day.
The tech billionaire could pay you almost $100,000 (£77,000) a year for the bizarre job, which is designed to train its Tesla humanoid robot, Optimus.
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A job listing has been spotted on the electric car giant's website looking for a "data collection operator".
The job description reveals that the lucky employee will have to walk a pre-determined test route daily for data collection.
They will be expected to be on the move for more than seven hours each shift while carrying up to 30lb.
"Must have the ability to stand, sit, walk, stoop, bend, reach, crouch, and twist throughout the day," it states.
Read more about Elon Musk
Workers also need to wear and operate a motion capture suit and VR headset for "extended periods of time" and warns that the device can be disorienting, potentially leading to result in "VR sickness symptoms".
The listing states that you'll also need to be between 5’7’’ and 5’11’’ tall to be up for the job.
Collecting data, as well as helping with engineering requests and reporting any issues with the equipment are the main objectives of the role.
Tesla, which is owned by Musk, 53, is offering from $25.25 to $48.00/hour.
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Based on a full time working week of 40 hours at the highest possible rate, the successful applicant could therefore receive an annual paycheck of $99,840.
It's reported that Tesla has already hired more than 50 people to carry out the task of training Optimus.
Mind-blowing video shows Elon Musk's Humanoid robot doing YOGA with impressive balance and coordination
Musk recently revealed that the bots will go enter "low production" within Tesla before they are made available to other companies in 2026.
"Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026," he tweeted in July.
There have been several versions of Optimus since being announced in 2021.
At the end of last year a video emerged showing the robot pick up, hold and put down an egg without breaking it.
Optimus has even been shown doing yoga.
What can Optimus do?
There have been several versions of Optimus and although they can carry out some tasks they are still being perfected. So far, they can:
- Forward walking
- Squatting and squat walk
- Side stepping
- Turning while walking
- Lifting objects from the ground up to eye level
- Squeezing or gripping and object and lifting it
- Climbing stairs
- Squatting and picking up and object
- Walking on a slope or hill
- Sliding objects
- Using a drill
- Pushing and pulling objects
- Turning with an object
- Using a screwdriver
Musk has previously said he hopes Optimus will walk humans into a "future of abundance, a future where there is no poverty, a future where you can have whatever you want in terms of products and services.”
But he's also sounded the alarm about development of humanoids, saying they can "basically chase you anywhere".
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“It’s something we should be quite concerned about," he told the AI Safety Summit last year.
"If a robot can follow you anywhere, what if they get a software update one day, and they’re not so friendly any more?"
Inside Musk's wealth
Elon Musk is the world's second richest man with an estimated net worth of $245billion.
The 53-year-old has co-founded six major companies, including X.com which eventually became PayPal.
Ebay bought PayPal for $1.5billion in October 2002.
He used $100million from the sale to launch SpaceX, one of the world's leading spaceflight companies, with ambitions to eventually travel to Mars.
The company also provides Starlink internet services beamed from SpaceX's satellites.
Musk was an early investor in Tesla too and is now the electric car giant's largest shareholder.
One of his most notorious business ventures was the takeover of Twitter, costing $44billion - which was later rebranded to X in a nod to his early success.
But Musk's most controversial project is Neuralink, a firm that's creating tech implants for the brain to help people with neurological disorders.
The South African-born businessman was the world's richest man for sometime but lost his crown in 2024.
He also broke the Guinness World Record for largest lose of personal fortune, estimated by Forbes to be around $165billion.