Tesla Optimus Gen 2 humanoid robot. Credit: Tesla / CC BY 3.0 Tesla’s latest video update on its Optimus humanoid robot has sparked widespread attention, as the machine is seen performing household chores using simple voice instructions, marking what Elon Musk calls a major step forward in autonomous robotics. Posted on May 20, 2025, by the Tesla Optimus X account on X, the footage shows the robot picking up a trash bag, opening a bin lid, and placing the bag inside. It then follows another prompt to “pick up the brush and dustpan, clean the table,” easily sweeping food scraps into the pan. Other scenes show the robot tearing a paper towel from a roll, stirring food in a pot, vacuuming, organizing objects on a dolly, pressing a microwave button, and closing a curtain. Tesla says all tasks were done using a “single neural net” trained on human demonstration videos. Tesla says the robot learns by watching people The video is the robot’s most advanced demonstration, showing smoother execution and more complex task combinations than previous public tests. Tesla says Optimus was trained using first-person footage of people performing everyday actions. This method allows the robot to learn behaviors directly and adapt quickly. I’m not just dancing all day, ok pic.twitter.com/rKs5WwKjvf — Milan Kovac (@_milankovac_) May 21, 2025 He added that one of the team’s goals is to train Optimus using third-person internet videos. “Next: expand to 3rd person video transfer (aka random internet), and push reliability via self-play (RL) in the real-, and/or synthetic- (sim/world models) world,” Kovac wrote. The robot operates using a single neural network, allowing it to multitask and follow spoken or written instructions without needing separate models for each activity. Public reaction and long-term plans The video surpassed 1.6 million views within 10 hours. Reactions on X were largely positive, with many users praising the progress. “Amazing! Love these updates. Keep them coming,” one viewer wrote. Others questioned how skills might be shared between units or adapted to different household environments. Musk says Optimus will surpass all products At a recent conference, Tesla CEO Elon Musk described Optimus as “the biggest product of all time,” predicting it could surpass every invention to date in impact. “I think it will be 10 times bigger than the next biggest product ever made, like that level,” Musk said. 🇺🇸 ELON: OPTIMUS WILL BE THE BIGGEST PRODUCT OF ALL TIME "The only company with all the ingredients for making intelligent humanoid robots at scale is Tesla. This is a super big deal. My prediction on this front is that Optimus will be the biggest product of all time by far.… https://t.co/jcCzS5gVBk pic.twitter.com/hC5C0gNSvI