At a recent Tesla shareholder meeting, Tesla CEO Elon Musk pitched an unconventional idea: deploying Optimus robots to monitor criminals and step in if they attempt new offenses.
Musk described the concept as a “more humane form of containment of future crime” compared with the existing prison system, claiming this concept will replace and eliminate traditional prisons.
“You don’t have to put people in prisons and stuff,” Musk said. “If somebody’s committed crime, you now get a free Optimus and it’s just gonna follow you around and stop you from doing crime. But other than that you get to do anything. It’s just gonna stop you from committing crime, that’s really it.”
The proposal quickly sparked controversy, raising serious ethical and practical concerns. Musk offered few details on how the still-developing robots would detect or prevent criminal behavior, and critics raised major concerns about privacy, surveillance, and societal risks associated with allowing for-profit robots to become part of the criminal justice system.
“This shows a complete lack of understanding of criminology, the justice system, and frankly, basic human rights,” said Michael Johnson, a legal expert at the Brookings Institution. “The idea that a robot can somehow rehabilitate offenders better than comprehensive support programs is absurd. It comes across as a dystopian surveillance scheme more than anything else.”
Others pointed out the current limitations of Tesla’s Optimus robots, which have only demonstrated simple tasks, such as waving and carrying boxes. AI ethicists also emphasized the considerable challenge of programming robots to make nuanced judgments in complex, real-world situations.
“These robots simply do not have anywhere near the intelligence or physical capabilities to monitor, let alone restrain, human behavior,” said robotics engineer Sarah Chen. “The risks of false positives, bias, and misuse are immense. What happens when a robot misinterprets a benign situation as a crime? Who is liable?”
Musk has long been known for bold, unconventional ideas, such as colonizing Mars to implanting brain chips. Some Tesla investors have also voiced concern that Musk is becoming distracted by ambitious side projects, instead of focusing on core priorities, such as boosting production. The same shareholder meeting granted him a new $1 trillion pay package.
Tesla Optimus unveiled in 2022 vs 2025
The progress is insane in just 3 years pic.twitter.com/bbOIx3iXqy
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) November 11, 2025
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