Optimus robots wandered around the party held after Elon Musk’s Tesla unveiled its robotaxi last month, doling out drinks and chatting with guests. They were also being photographed, as android butlers make for great social media content. Partygoers couldn’t believe their eyes – and they shouldn’t have. The robots weren’t fully autonomous, but remote-controlled avatars.

That shouldn’t have surprised the tech-savvy revellers. After all, when Musk first unveiled Optimus in 2021, the humanoid robot that strode onto stage was actually a costumed dancer. Indeed, throughout the long history of robots, if one impresses with its intelligence,…