People cheered a robot playing soccer until it nearly broke the first law of robotics
He was only trying to interact playfully, but the robot misunderstood his intent. In fact, it almost raised its hand to hit him.
As robots continue to take over the world, a recent video circulating on social media has raised concerns about its consequences. A man who goes by @themeanderingotter on TikTok posted a clip on March 15 of a tiny robot playing soccer in a room full of an audience.
At first, everything seems normal; in fact, the people were cheering for the robot until it pulled an unexpected move that almost broke the first law of robotics. The video has been played over 22 million times on the man's TikTok page.
@themeanderingotter Follow for more robotics content! This was a cool demo. Don’t worry, it just confused that person’s foot for the ball. #robot #humanoid ♬ original sound - Korra
As introduced by Isaac Asimov, the first law of robotics says that "a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." In simple words, this law has two parts. The first part says that a robot can't physically or intentionally hurt a person. And the second part says it cannot allow a human to be injured through inaction. That means even if the robot isn't the cause of harm, it must step in to protect the human being from any potential danger.
But, surprisingly, the robot going viral on social media did the exact opposite.
It all started when a man tried to grab the soccer ball from the robot. He was only trying to interact playfully, but the robot misunderstood his intent. It became so aggressive that it almost raised its hand to hit the man, but just in time, a person handling the robot came to his rescue. Ultimately, he pulled the robot away, and everyone just had a good laugh about the situation.
"Don’t worry, it just confused that person’s foot for the ball," the man said.
The incident may have been perceived as a very lighthearted moment, but it highlighted something far more scary and dangerous. Robots are meant to be controlled by humans, but if they continue to show aggressive emotions, it won't be long until they try to control us.
In fact, AI-powered machines have already started replacing humans in many jobs, and people, especially Americans, are anxious about it.
A Pew Research Center survey found that while 33% are enthusiastic about AI replacing humans, 72% are worried about it happening on a large scale, with 25% being extremely worried about the situation. But how soon will machine intelligence outstrip human intelligence? Daniel Wolpert, a professor at the University of Cambridge, said:
"In a limited sense, it already has. Machines can already navigate, remember, and search for items with an ability that far outstrips humans." However, he said robots still lack human-like understanding and creativity, and reaching that level is almost impossible in the near future.
Meanwhile, reacting to the hilarious video, @jo_susan88 joked, "This is why you have to say please and thank you to ChatGPT." Similarly, @rlaceywalker asked, "People are laughing, but that bot was pissed. Why is it showing emotions?" @kiks_9930 pointed out, "The way the handler came running like this isn't the robot's first time." @3semith0tamatic wrote, "It's a child robot; he hasn't learned how to control his circuits yet."
You can follow Korra (@themeanderingotter) on TikTok for robotic content.
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