For those who have followed Stephen Hawkings, you will realize that his greatest fear was that there would come a time when Artificial Intelligence may rise against humans. The time may not necessarily be here, but there are a number of times that robots killed people.
In fact, there are many others who believe one day, robots will wipe out and replace the human race successfully. Could robots have begun this ‘secret’ mission already or are these merely accidents? Well, let’s take a look.
Here are some times robots killed people
1. FIRST DEATH AT THE HANDS OF A ROBOT
The first person ever to be killed by a robot is Robert Williams. He was a factory worker at the Ford factory in Michigan, Flat Rock to be precise. On the 25th of January 1979, Williams needed to retrieve some casts so he climbed up a shelf. There was a robot on ground to do this particular job but on that fateful day, it kept displaying the wrong number of cases left on the shelf. Unknown to him, the robot was moving and the arm hit him as he climbed. A jury ruled the cause of his death as lax safety measures and $10 million was awarded to his family.
2. DEATH BY AN ANTI-AIRCRAFT WEAPONS
A weapon capable of locating, targeting and engaging enemies without any intervention from a human was built. This was the Oerlikon GDF-005 anti-aircraft weapon. In Lohatlha, Northern Cape at the Army’s Combat Training Centre, some South African troops were on training with the weapon when it went agog and shot about 250 rounds of 35-millimeter high-explosives. The result was 14 injured and nine dead soldiers. The accident was speculated to be a result of either a mechanical fault or a software problem.
3. THE FIRST ROBOT HOMICIDE
The death of a 21-year-old factory worker at a Volkswagen plant in Germany has been dubbed the world’s first robot homicide by the internet. The victim was doing his job which was installing the robot. All of a sudden the robot struck out its arms and hit him straight up in the chest and crushed him against a plate leading to his death. In defense, a spokesman for Volkswagen affirmed that the robot wasn’t designed to work closely with humans. It was placed in a special cage which unfortunately the deceased (whose name was withheld) was in at the time of the attack.
See Also: Hackers could program sex robots to kill- Not With Sex
4. WANDA HOLBROOK’S MERCILESS DEATH
Wanda Holbrook, 57, was a freelance maintenance technician with Ventra Ionia Main, an auto-parts maker in Michigan. Her job specification was the maintenance of the company’s robotic machines. She was carrying out her duties when a robot from section 130 crossed over to section 140 and hit her. It crushed her head between a hitch assembly and left her for dead following serious head injuries. Coincidentally, this came exactly three weeks after concerns were raised by The New York Times in an article regarding the safety of co-working with robots.
5. THE DEATH OF JOSHUA BROWN
On the 7th of May 2016, Joshua Brown took the Tesla Model S, an autopilot car out for a drive but the ride lasted only 37 minutes. The car couldn’t differentiate an 18-wheel tractor-trailer and went under a side of it. The roof went off and the car crashed as it went off the road through a pole and two fences. Tesla’s defense was that the autopilot required the driver’s hands on the wheel but that Joshua only had his on for 25 seconds. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that the brakes were never engaged either by the driver or the autopilot. Well, long story short, that accounts for another human death by a machine.
6. THE FIRST JAPANESE TO BE KILLED BY A ROBOT
Kenji Urada was repairing an isolated faulty robot one day in July 1981 when his body mistakenly brushed the robot. All attempt to rescue him proved abortive as it pinned him against another machine and took his life. However, it seems he brought it upon himself. The fenced area that the robot was placed in was supposed to serve as a protective defense but Kenji breached this when he jumped the fence rather than walk in through the door.
7. THE DEAD BRIDE
Okay, no, hold on! This isn’t a death at a wedding or a horror story yet it is. Regina Elsie along with some of her colleagues tried to repair a faulty robot at a South Korean plant in Cusseta, Alabama which made spare parts for Kia and Hyundai vehicles. Several calls for professional help weren’t answered so the colleagues decided to do the repairs but it proved fatal as the robot suddenly restarted and hit her against another robot. She was rushed to the hospital but died the next morning, barely two weeks before her wedding. The plant called Ajin USA was revealed to have committed over 27 safety violations including staff overworking.
At the end of the day…
Just as robots can kill one, so too any other thing. From all the cases recorded thus far, there is no intentional killing of humans by robots. But then scientist say it will come in different ways soon such as:
1. When they get hacked: in fact, this is one of the greatest fears of experts as they believe that once left unchecked, the most innocent of robots could be hacked and it may become a killing machine.
2. Malfunction: Mostly applicable to robots designed for war and other things of the sort, such robots may decide to turn on their master with disastrous consequences. In 2008, for example, there was a record of military robots in Iraq that by some mistakes, turned their guns to the US military. However, military officials were quick to act and stop the rebellion leading to the early retirement of the killer robots.
See Also: Robots that have killed themselves- 2 Impossible Things That Happened
3. Conscious Rebellion: Serious attempts are made by scientists to develop robots that are conscious and self-aware. While it may end as a scientific leap, there is the danger that it may open up robots to make decisions for themselves and that may include whether or not to kill you.
