Two years ago, Tesla's Optimus prototype was an underwhelming mess of exposed wires that could only operate in a carefully controlled stage presentation. Last night, Tesla's "We, Robot" event featured much more advanced Optimus prototypes that could walk around without tethers and interact directly with partygoers.

Optimus humanoid robots that were circulating in the crowd at the electric vehicle maker's robotaxi event on Thursday evening. While the Optimus robots talked to guests and took instructions, it is now unclear if they were in an autonomous AI-powered mode or controlled by humans.