Pedestrians near Oracle Park and the SoMa district were stopped in their tracks Wednesday as a hyper-realistic, flesh-colored android head of Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, trotted past them. The head, made of silicone, wasn’t attached to a human body, but rather to the mechanical frame of a four-legged robot dog.
The Musk-bot didn’t just walk; it actively engaged with the city. Onlookers watched as the autonomous machine followed people, squatted, and even lifted a robotic leg to wave at passersby.
The spectacle even included a bit of high-tech humor: “Lost Dog” posters were seen nearby featuring a similar robot, but with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s face instead.
The viral stunt was actually a mobile promotion for “Infinite_Loop,” an upcoming exhibition by the world-famous digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple. Opening April 18 at the Node digital art center in Palo Alto, the show features a series titled “Regular Animals.”
This collection isn’t limited to Musk. Beeple has created similar Unitree Go2 robot versions of other titans, such as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, as well as legendary artists like Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.
Phil Mohun, the director of Node, explained the logic behind the public walk to the San Francisco Chronicle: “Sending Elon into the streets is a way to bring that energy into public life ahead of the exhibition opening next week, and the reaction has been exactly what Beeple’s work does so well: it stops people in their tracks and gets them talking.”
More than a silicone mask
While it looks like a prank, these robots are sophisticated data collectors. They use computer vision to map their surroundings and “poop” out physical printed photos of what they see. These experiences are then preserved as NFTs.
According to a statement from Beeple Studios reported by Republic: “Their silicone faces, robotics, and onboard computer vision merge the digital and physical, blurring where portraiture ends and machine agency begins. Unlike static depictions, these humanoid animals continuously reinterpret the world through their sensors, generating an ever-expanding dataset that will outlive the machines themselves.”
In a poetic twist, these robots have a finite lifespan. According to the Node website, the machines will “die” after three years — the equivalent of 21 “dog years” — at which point their gathered memories will be stored forever on the blockchain.
A terrifying success
Public reaction to the mechanical mogul has been a toss-up between amusement and genuine unease. While some found the billionaire-dog hybrid hilarious, others found the hyper-realistic Hyperflesh masks to be nightmare fuel.
Whether it’s viewed as a masterpiece or a monstrosity, the Musk-headed robot has done exactly what it was designed to do: grab attention and spark conversation about the evolving relationship between humans, machines, and modern art.
Also read: China’s new robot schools are training humanoids through VR-guided repetition and real-world mockups for factory and home tasks.