Historically, when people have imagined the future, they’ve pictured humanoid robots capable of performing the same tasks as humans.

We’re getting closer to that reality. However, many of the robots you see online are actually controlled by human operators using motion capture (mocap) suits. This has led us to the following moment. A human operator kicking himself in the balls via the robot he was controlling:

Using a mocap suit to kick yourself in the balls with a robot is a great metaphor to close out 2025. pic.twitter.com/G1hY5Fd6YF

— CIX (@cixliv) December 27, 2025

Welcome to the future

When we first saw the above video, we thought: ‘that must be AI, right?‘

Digging a little deeper, we discovered that the person sharing it was the CEO and ‘chief robot fighter’ of REK.

REK is a robot fighting league in which combatants use VR headsets and mocap to operate mechanical pugilists:

Quick recap of our REK America Tour. It’s been absolutely wild and super hard.

Our finale is in New York City in 3 days! Don’t miss the last show! pic.twitter.com/xZ5DFQhHRE

— REK (@REK) November 23, 2025

Given that remote-controlled robo-bouts are now a thing, it was only going to be so long before one of these people tapped themselves.

REK recently advertised a bout which took place at xAI, which is Elon Musk’s AI company:

Robot fight at xAI party pic.twitter.com/LrPLiLGCeP

— Rich (@richzou) December 21, 2025

Musk is a notable figure in the field of mocap robots; specifically because he claims his Tesla robots are not mocap-controlled. This is despite videos like the following. In one, a Tesla bot mysteriously collapses:

At a Miami event, a Tesla Optimus operator removed his VR headset, and the robot instantly copied the motion and fell. Some think he may have felt unwell. This comes after Musk claimed Optimus works independently.

its all scam pic.twitter.com/dArZt1ZmFx

— Eduard (@edu_ard20) December 8, 2025

There was also a Tesla event in 2024 in which it was later reported that the robots were remote controlled, as the LA Times wrote:

Some attendees said on social media afterward that the robots had help and at least one video posted online purportedly from the Oct. 10 Cybercab robotaxi event shows an Optimus bartender acknowledging that it was being “assisted by a human.” That wasn’t stated by Chief Executive Elon Musk during his remarks on a webcast.

The use of human input raises questions over the capabilities and market readiness of the bot, which Musk said last week he expects to be “the biggest product ever of any kind.” The CEO told the crowd it will handle many household tasks and could eventually be available to consumers for $20,000 to $30,000 each.

“What can it do?” 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.”

Obviously, it’s very important to know if Musk’s robots are controlled by remote, because Tesla stocks will look very different depending on the answer to that question. It’s also important because Musk has a long, long history of making promises he never fulfills, as this website documents.

Featured image via REK

By Willem Moore

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