What can we do about robots being evil?

How often do we see such incidents?

Not much. Robert Williams was the first employee to die at the hands of a robot at the Ford Motor Plant in Michigan in the United States in January 1979. In March 2018, an Uber driverless car hit and killed Ellen Herzberg, a 49-year-old woman in Arizona. Robotic surgeries, on their part, are minimally invasive but can also fail due to software or machine errors. According to a study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE in 2016, between 2000 and 2013, there were 144 deaths, 1,391 patient injuries and 8,061 equipment failures during robotic surgery.

But aren’t robots helpful too?

Definitely. Lightweight and small collaborative robots (cobots) routinely perform repetitive, monotonous and dangerous tasks in warehouses and factories where humans can tire and make mistakes. AI-powered social robots, on their part, interact with humans and other robots, and provide solace and comfort to the elderly and the mentally challenged. Locomotive robots are designed to navigate difficult terrain such as hills, deserts, forests, pipelines, drains, sewers, etc., and have also helped humans capture images on the Moon and Mars. Robots can even clear your floors and cook food for you.

Then why are we afraid that robots will harm humans?

Many people believe that robots are becoming sentient. Sci-fi movies starring intelligent robots like Ultron, Skynet, Sentinels (Killing Machine in the Matrix) and Bharat Ki Apni (Rajinikanth’s) Chitti have added to this fear. In fact, Libya may have the first autonomous drone strike, according to a UN panel’s March 2021 report.

Is this why humans attack robots too?

In 2015, a Canadian robot made its way through Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, but was beheaded by vandals in Philadelphia. In 2017, Alantim, a Russian teaching robot, was beaten to “death” with a baseball bat, after its owners built the world’s first dedicated robot cemetery. People also pelted stones at self-driving cars of Alphabet unit Waymo, and in December 2018, a man opened fire on a Waymo self-driving car. Experts say it could be retaliation for losing a job or even fear of robot rebellion.

How should we address this issue?

Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics is just the starting point. Factories typically create “danger” or “kill” zones to warn people to stay away from industrial robots doing work. Bodies like the United Nations need to create a framework to rein in “killer robots” that include robots like bombs, weapons and dogs that use digital technologies and AI to make almost autonomous decisions that harm humans. can. Again, since machines cannot currently be held responsible for their actions, their programmers and owners certainly can.

first article