Claims Elon Musk is developing a surrogate robot are unfounded

At an Oct. 10 Tesla event, the company’s CEO Elon Musk touted its Optimus robots, which he compared with robots in the "Star Wars" franchise, calling them, "your own personal R2-D2/C-3PO."

In a video that played at the event — and streamed on Musk’s social media platform X — the robots appeared watering plants, fetching packages from the front door and carrying groceries.

"It’ll do anything you want," Musk said. "It can be a teacher, babysit your kids, it can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks." 

"Whatever you can think of, it will do," Musk added. 

The big robot reveal inspired memes as people on social media riffed about what they’d have theirs do: "Make me a seafood boil at 3am," "Roll me another blunt and fire up another round of Bagel Bites," "Go on another beer run."  

Other social media posts promise something bigger: a robot that will carry and bear a child. 

"Elon Musk launches new pregnancy robot," an Oct. 25 Instagram post said. 

"Elon is currently working on a new version of robots that can carry your baby for 9 months while you go about your work," an Oct. 22 Facebook post said. "You and your partner just need to bring your sperms and eggs. They fertilize and allow it to grow inside the robot for 9 months. This is going to reduce the number of women that die during delivery."

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stated on October 22, 2024 in posts on X

A photo shows The Atlantic published a story headlined “Trump is Literally Hitler.”

The post included several images, including what looks like a woman robot with a human face carrying a child in her transparent stomach. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

We asked Tesla about the post but received no reply. 

But the image the Facebook post includes of the robot carrying a child isn’t from Tesla. It was created by Viktoria Blank, an artist who describes herself as a "digital artist exploring the beauty of the human form with innovative technology."

The robot image comes from a video Blank posted Oct. 18 on TikTok. 

"M0TH3R - The Future of Life?" the caption said. "Imagine a world where technology and biology are no longer separate. This image of an android with a newborn challenges us to rethink the boundaries between human and machine, between life and creation. Will artificial beings one day carry the next generation? What does it mean to create life, and could we share that power with technology? As we advance in AI and robotics, we might face questions that go beyond science — questions about identity, emotions, and the meaning of being alive. What do you think? Will we ever witness a reality like this?"

We looked for but found no evidence, such as credible news reports or public statements from Tesla, that Musk is working on a robot to carry and bear children. 

We rate this claim False.