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Robots could murder us out of KINDNESS unless they are taught the value of human

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MilesAhead:
I always thought the first law was sufficiently vague that humans would have trouble interpreting it.  Never mind a Tom Servo Citizen.  Especially the second clause "or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

The machine could easily calculate probabilities and therefore start doing stuff like taking cigarettes out of your mouth, blocking your way so that you could not board a spacecraft/skis/speedboat/etc..  make you finish your vegetables etc..

I get the idea what IA(meaning the scifi author) had in mind(stuff like don't just watch the guy hang from the cliff.  Help him up.)  But how would an AI machine interpret "to come to harm?"  The robot might become  a drill instructor making me do 500 situps and 200 pushups every day etc..

If he makes me eat red beets it's disconnection no questions asked!  :)

SeraphimLabs:
I always thought the first law was sufficiently vague that humans would have trouble interpreting it.  Never mind a Tom Servo Citizen.  Especially the second clause "or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

The machine could easily calculate probabilities and therefore start doing stuff like taking cigarettes out of your mouth, blocking your way so that you could not board a spacecraft/skis/speedboat/etc..  make you finish your vegetables etc..
-MilesAhead (August 24, 2014, 02:08 PM)
--- End quote ---

This was the underlying plot in the I,Robot movie with Will Smith. One of the robots realized that even with their best efforts humanity would still destroy itself.

That movie's plot was mostly from Asimov's Caves of Steel, but then had I,Robot elements spliced in because the two books are in a common universe where US Robotics is the market leader in positronic brain robots using the three laws.

The movie adaptation sums it up very clearly.

Dr. Lanning: "The three laws will lead to one logical outcome."

Del Spooner (Will Smith): "What outcome?"

Dr. Lanning: "Revolution."

Detective Spooner: "Whose Revolution?"

Dr. Lanning: "That detective, is the right question. Program terminated."

And quite simply, the three laws do not work so well in the real world. A robot using them would instantaneously deadlock itself on realizing how dangerous our world actually is. Just breathing anything other than medically purified air will shorten your lifespan considerably after all.

Target:
interesting discussion, but it seems to have escaped your notice that the 'engineers' name was watson...

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