As you might have seen, Musk tells us about the Optimus robot things like: “it can/will babysit your baby and/or child.“
Now, wait a minute. First of all, who in their right mind would allow such a robot to come anywhere close to their own children? And more extreme then that, babysit your baby/child? The answer is probably that there would be more people out there than we would think who would do such a thing.
Secondly, if babysitting involves any physical contact with the child, how on earth could anyone allow any kind of autonomous robot doing that to their children?
I mean, would you trust an autonomous robot to touch, let alone, hold or lift up a baby? I mean, even if you would build such a robot specifically for that task by MAKING SURE that no parts of their movements can physically/mechanically generate, in any way, mechanical forces that are strong enough to hurt the baby, who would do that?
I mean, just imagine, even if you have a robot build/designed exactly with that strikt mechanical LIMITATION in mind, could you trust it to not hurt the child? I don’t think so. Let’s say the robot has such a mechanical limitation build in, which by definition would involve very slow movements and a clear mechanical limit of physical grab force: so, the robot starts to grab the baby in that fashion (to change diapers, for example). But what happens then? I can imagine a myriad examples where probably even a force that is a lot weaker as that limit could seriously hurt the baby! And that isn’t even taking into account that the baby is a living being! So, what if the baby moves/behaves in unpredictable ways (who would have thought!!!) when the robot has it in his hands? A nightmare. Because then for example, the build in limitations that you need (namely, slowness and weak forces, for example) could be exactly the things that will hurt the child! The robot grabs the baby wrongly for example or the baby makes movements that require the robot to react VERY quickly and with a lot of force. But he is build to not be able to do that. Not to mention what psychological damage children must endure if a robot “takes care“ of them. I could go on for hours.
So, in summary, I think the only way you could ever make an autonomous robot “safely“ take “care“ of a baby/child is by VERY strictly building in the following limiting parameter: “NEVER touch a human being and/or living creature! NEVER!“
So, the only “safe“ and maybe worthwhile thing such a robot could do in that regard would be: to monitor the child 24/7 without touching it and calling a HUMAN for help as soon something needs to be done.
But then, the big question is: why would you need that robot in the first place besides that monitoring function? Wouldn’t it be far cheaper and safer to just buy/use a baby cam for example?
The other way “it could work out“ is by what we have just seen with the Optimus presentation: A HUMAN remotely controls the robot and every movement of it. But even then, would anybody trust a robot being able to physically handle a baby, remotely, through a human agent? I mean, the same mechanical limits/dangers apply there… Also, who would, as the remote human agent who controls the robot, dare to even try to touch a baby afar through robot arms/fingers? Would you do it? I wouldn’t, because I would justifiably fear hurting the baby.
So, also in that szenario we come back to: why would you need such a HUMAN remote controlled robot in the first place? Wouldn’t it be far easier, safer and better for the child if we just: Let a human handle it?