The fear of tech gone rogue manifested itself in the Moscow Open chess tournament last week, when a robot, unsettled by a 7-year-old's quick response, grabbed and broke his finger. (Twitter/Screengrab)The robot that had inadvertently broken a child’s finger during a recent tournament in Moscow has an uncertain future ahead of it, despite it being said by officials that the child broke the safety rules on board.
In a viral video, a woman, followed by three men, rushed to save the child after the robot caught his finger. After the incident, the child continued to play on and was even part of the awards ceremony after getting his hand put on a cast.
All acquisition that advanced AI will destroy humanity is false. Not the powerful AI or breaching laws of robotics will destroy humanity, but engineers with both left hands :/
On video – a chess robot breaks a kid's finger at Moscow Chess Open today. pic.twitter.com/bIGIbHztar
— Pavel Osadchuk 👨💻💤 (@xakpc) July 21, 2022
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“Thousands of children played before the incident with the robot, and a couple of hundred afterwards,” Russian chess official Sergey Smagin told TASS news agency, discussing the scenes which had unfolded at the Moscow Chess Open.
“It was enough to follow an elementary rule – to take turns making moves. I don’t know for what reason, but the boy extended his hand during the robot’s move. In my memory this has never happened before. Moreover, the robot only pressed his finger, if it had not been extended, then nothing would have happened at all.”
But the parents of the child have said that they want to press charges. Currently the robot has been put on standby mode, according to the Baza Telegram channel, who shared the footage of the incident online. It was rented by the Moscow Chess federation and has been used previously with children as well.
Moscow Chess Federation president Sergey Lazarev said that he wanted the incident to be settled peacefully between the chess body and the parents of the child. Lazarev called for the robot’s operators to instead add extra safeguards and protections in place to ensure that such an incident doesn’t happen again.
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“The parents wanted to write a statement to the prosecutor’s office,” Lazarev said. “We want to settle peacefully, to come to an agreement. I don’t think the robot should be abandoned… It has been exhibited at various chess events for more than 10 years. But we will talk with its owners, the operators on additional protection and security measures.”
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