Science fiction has all the time been a style meant to encourage and warning us in equal measure, and 2004’s “I, Robotic” is not any exception. Happening within the yr 2035 in a future the place self-driving vehicles are the norm, legions of robots have taken over menial duties, and Converse All-Star sneakers are nonetheless as recent as ever, director Alex Proyas’ messy motion film was a strong come across launch and has aged surprisingly properly — significantly as our personal actuality has taken bigger and bigger steps towards the same establishment. One can simply think about Will Smith’s old-school cop Del Spooner taking a look at our personal actuality and stubbornly rolling his eyes at our personal acceptance of and overreliance on AI. Certain, we’re not fairly on the degree of technological development that Proyas and writers Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman envisioned (to say nothing of famed creator Isaac Asimov himself, who wrote the varied books that the film pulls from), however we’re not terribly far off, both.

Now, if solely we had higher and extra artistic technological visionaries main the best way. In a peak instance of fact genuinely being stranger than fiction, “I, Robotic” has as soon as once more been thrust into the highlight … however for the silliest of causes. If any particular person truly believes they’re the one to steer us into this model of the longer term, it would be Elon Musk. The general public determine is not any stranger to grand ambitions, having taken over corporations comparable to SpaceX, Tesla, and even X (previously generally known as Twitter) whereas promising to take humanity to the “subsequent step.” As an alternative of colonies on Mars, self-driving vehicles safely taking up our roadways, and a social media platform that is a haven totally free speech, nevertheless, we’re as an alternative caught with three controversial companies with a laundry checklist of issues and a rogue billionaire who appears to assume he is Tony Stark.

Effectively, let’s simply say Iron Man wasn’t the one accused of blatantly ripping off designs from a lot smarter folks. In a brand new tweet, Proyas mockingly known as out Musk for stealing numerous designs from “I, Robotic” and it is laborious to argue with him. Musk’s transformation into Justin Hammer is properly and really full, people.

Oh, the scrumptious irony. Maybe probably the most well-known scene from “I, Robotic” that continuously goes viral to today could be that second between Will Smith’s cynical detective and the hyper-intelligent robotic Sonny (voiced and mo-capped by Alan Tudyk) the place the 2 debate the nuances of artwork, inspiration, and creativity. So, naturally, it stands to cause that Elon Musk took discover of the dazzling visuals from the 2004 film, saved them away behind his head, after which shamelessly copied them when it got here time to design numerous prototypes at Tesla. Lately, Musk’s automobile firm unveiled a sequence of far-fetched ideas at an occasion actually known as “We, Robotic,” starting from autonomous bartending robots (which weren’t so “autonomous,” in any case), a brand new “Cybercab” taxi, and a “Robovan” — all of which regarded openly just like their counterparts in “I, Robotic.” Take a look at Proyas’ tweet beneath, which was accompanied by his zinger, “Hey Elon, Can I’ve my designs again please?” and rapidly went viral:

Hey Elon, Can I’ve my designs again please? #ElonMusk #Elon_Musk pic.twitter.com/WPgxHevr6E

— Alex Proyas (@alex_proyas) October 13, 2024

In fact, given Proyas’ well-established historical past of getting completely no filter in any respect (most just lately taking problem with the remake of “The Crow”), it is no shock that the outspoken filmmaker would wade into this debate weapons blazing. It helps that he definitely has a sound case right here and setting the report straight on how by-product Musk’s “modern” designs have all the time been. With apologies to all of the Cybertruck house owners on the market, cases like this aren’t doing any favors to these ugly-looking demise traps. On the brilliant aspect, the remainder of us can have enjoyable guessing which random sci-fi film from the final 20 years Musk will attempt to rip off subsequent.