WEBVTT - What Was the First Killer Robot?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Bogelbaum here. The date is January nine nine. Robert Williams,

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<v Speaker 1>a year old factory worker in a Ford Motor Company

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<v Speaker 1>casting plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, is asked to scale

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<v Speaker 1>a massive shelving unit to manually count the parts there.

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<v Speaker 1>The five story machine used to retrieve the castings is

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<v Speaker 1>giving false readings, and it's William's task to go up

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<v Speaker 1>and find out how many there actually are. While Williams

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<v Speaker 1>is up there doing the job, a robot arm, also

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<v Speaker 1>tasked with parts retrieval, goes about its work. In doing so,

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<v Speaker 1>their paths accidentally cross, and the robotic arm catches the

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<v Speaker 1>young man, striking him in the head and killing him instantly,

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<v Speaker 1>And thus, on this wintry day, Williams becomes the first

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<v Speaker 1>human in history to be killed by a robot. The death,

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<v Speaker 1>of course, was completely unintentional. There simply weren't safeguards in

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<v Speaker 1>place to protect Williams. No alarms notified him of the

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<v Speaker 1>approaching arm, and there was no technology in place to

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<v Speaker 1>alter the robot's behavior in the presence of a human person.

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<v Speaker 1>As of nineteen seventy nine, the artificial intelligence involved wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>sophisticated enough to do anything to prevent such a death.

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<v Speaker 1>Jury agreed that not enough care had been put into

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<v Speaker 1>the design of the robot. William's family wanted ten million

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<v Speaker 1>dollar lawsuit for his wrongful death from the Unit Handling Systems,

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<v Speaker 1>a division of Litton Industries, the manufacturer that designed the robot.

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<v Speaker 1>In the ensuing years, roboticists, computer scientists, and artificial intelligence

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<v Speaker 1>experts have continued to struggle with the issue of how

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<v Speaker 1>robots can safely interact with humans without causing them harm.

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<v Speaker 1>Decades later, reports of human deaths caused by robots or

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<v Speaker 1>artificial intelligences feel more commonplace. Uber and Tesla have made

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<v Speaker 1>the news with reports of their partially autonomous cars getting

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<v Speaker 1>into accidents and killing passengers or striking pedestrians. Though many

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<v Speaker 1>safeguards now are in place, the problem still hasn't been solved. However,

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<v Speaker 1>none of these deaths are caused by the will of

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<v Speaker 1>the robot. These programmed machines don't to have a will,

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<v Speaker 1>just a set of operating conditions. But there's a worry

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<v Speaker 1>fanned by the flames of science fiction stories like The

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<v Speaker 1>Terminator or the Matrix, that artificial intelligences could develop a

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<v Speaker 1>will of their own, and in that development, the desire

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<v Speaker 1>to harm a human. We spoke with Shaman Whitson, Associate

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<v Speaker 1>professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University

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<v Speaker 1>of Oxford and chief scientist and co founder of Morphy's Labs.

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<v Speaker 1>He calls this concern the anthropomorphic fallacy. This, he said,

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<v Speaker 1>is the assumption that a system with human like intelligence

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<v Speaker 1>must also have humanlike desires e g. To survive, be free,

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<v Speaker 1>have dignity, et cetera. There's absolutely no reason why this

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<v Speaker 1>would be the case, as such a system will only

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<v Speaker 1>have whatever desires we give it. Value misalignment, he argues,

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<v Speaker 1>is the greater existential threat, where a gap exists between

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<v Speaker 1>what a programmer tells a machine to do and what

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<v Speaker 1>the programmer really meant to happen. Whitson explained, how do

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<v Speaker 1>you communicate your values to an intelligent system such that

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<v Speaker 1>the actions it takes fulfill your true intentions. The discrepancy

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<v Speaker 1>between the two becomes more consequential as the computer becomes

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<v Speaker 1>more intelligent and autonomous. Whiteston tells us that the even

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<v Speaker 1>greater threat, however, is scientists purposefully designing robots that can

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<v Speaker 1>kill human targets without human intervention for military purposes. The

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<v Speaker 1>Guardian reports that three d and eighty one partly autonomous

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<v Speaker 1>weapon and military robotics systems have been deployed or are

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<v Speaker 1>under development in a dozen countries, including China, France, Israel,

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<v Speaker 1>the UK and the US. In AI and robotics researchers

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<v Speaker 1>around the world published an open letter calling for a

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<v Speaker 1>worldwide ban on such technology, and it's currently endorsed by

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<v Speaker 1>almost four thousand researchers in the field and over twenty

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<v Speaker 1>two thousand other concerned humans, including folks like Stephen Hawking

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<v Speaker 1>and Noam Chomsky, and the United Nations is meeting again

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<v Speaker 1>in to discuss if and how to regulate so called

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<v Speaker 1>killer robots. Today's episode was written by Brian Young and

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Klang. For more in this and lots

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<v Speaker 1>of other all two human topics, visit our home planet,

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<v Speaker 1>TAW staff works dot com.