'I, Robot' director accuses Elon Musk of taking his ideas for new Tesla robot, van and more: 'Hey Elon, can I give back my designs?'

On Thursday, Tesla co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, unveiled a long-awaited glimpse of the future with models of their new self-driving prototypes: the CyberCab and Robovan. Also at the celebration was the new Tesla robot Optimus, serving drinks and engaging with the crowd.

Whether or not the Optimus robot was actually fully autonomous, but rather, remotely puppeteer is (very) controversial.

However, one person who seemed pretty sure about the origin of these designs was “I, Robot” director Alex Prayas. The director posted his complaint directly to Musk's preferred social media, X, commenting, “Hey Elon, can I have my designs back?”

The post includes images of the “I, Robot” autonomous police force next to the Optimus bot, transportation in the 2004 film next to Tesla's Robovan, and a futuristic car from the movie Proyos next to the CyberCab.

The 2004 film starring Will Smith is set in the futuristic world of Chicago in the year 2035, inspired by a 1950 collection of short stories by famed science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The plot centers around a detective (Smith) trying to uncover a mysterious murder that may or may not have been committed by a member of the autonomous police force named Sonny (played by Alan Tudyk).

Such actions should be impossible as all robots of the future are governed by the sci-fi trope, “The Three Laws of Robotics”. Law number one, a robot cannot injure a human. Law number two, a robot must obey commands given by humans unless it conflicts with the first law. Conflict with the First Law. And law number three, a robot must protect itself if it doesn't conflict with the first or second law. But here's the twist: the detective hates robots and their stupid laws, so it's wild that he's single-handedly tasked with cracking this case.

Best known for directing “The Crow” (1994 version) and the 1998 film “Dark City”, Prayas recently wrote his thoughts on AI and the film industry as a whole for his Patreon account and is currently producing another sci-fi film “RUR”.