The killing of a technician by an industrial robot at a Volkswagen plant in Germany sparked a social media storm this week and raised fears about human safety in the coming era of robotics.
But experts on artificial intelligence and automation said the incident near Kassel should be understood as an extremely rare industrial accident, rather than a warning about future threats. The accident, in which the robot crushed the man against a metal plate, occurred during installation and involved a fast-moving first-generation robot designed to operate inside a cage, well away from human workers.
“With present technology we cannot ‘blame’ the robot,” said Blay Whitby, artificial intelligence expert at the University of Sussex. “Robots are not yet at a level where their decision-making allows us to treat them as blameworthy.