Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, recently stated in a deep interview with renowned engineer Peter Diamandis that Tesla's "Optimus" general-purpose robot will surpass the world's top human doctors in the field of surgery within just three years.

Musk pointed out in the interview that the global healthcare system is facing a severe shortage of qualified surgeons. He believes that the process of training an excellent doctor is extremely long, and humans have natural limitations in knowledge updating and energy allocation, which can lead to operational errors. Musk boldly predicted that by around 2026, automated robots with top medical skills will be widely applied, and their numbers may even exceed the total number of human surgeons worldwide.

Musk, Tesla Robot

However, this grand vision has faced strong skepticism from the medical community. Arthur Caplan, a bioethics expert at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine, publicly stated that Musk's comments were "completely unreliable." Caplan noted that while automation technology has been initially applied in areas such as radiology image analysis, the progress of robot technology in precision surgical procedures has been very slow.

"The individual differences in the human body are immense, and this complexity is difficult to adapt through standardized programming," Caplan emphasized. "Surgical fields such as heart, brain, and trauma repair are closer to a precise art that requires high real-time judgment. Achieving full superiority within the next three years is not realistic in terms of clinical validation and technical feasibility." He even used autonomous driving technology as an analogy, arguing that if vehicles still cannot fully drive themselves in complex urban environments, then the automation of surgical procedures, which is more difficult and has a lower tolerance for error, would require even more time.

Additionally, Musk's term "robot army" has also raised concerns among management and the public. In previous discussions about his compensation plan, Musk has repeatedly expressed his desire to control this technology. He admitted that due to the fear of being "fired" after building a massive automated system, he must hold enough voting power to maintain long-term influence over the project. This statement has also led people to deeply reflect on the social safety and governance boundaries of such technologies, beyond just focusing on technological advancement.