It might sound downright bizarre and terrifying, but a robot was built by scientists that possesses the ability to choose whether or not to inflict pain to others.

Roboticist and artist Alexander Reben of the University of Berkeley, California, is the inventor of this machine where this basic robot is able to prick a finger however, its program tells it not to hurt others, when a chance is presented to the robot to hurt others.

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Reben named his creation as "The First Law" after a set of rules by Isaac Asimov who is a famous science fiction author. He hopes that this can create further awareness about artificial intelligence, especially when it gets out of control.

Reben's work also suggests the need for a "kill switch" as Google DeepMind researchers are developing one right now from the artificial intelligence division of the tech giant. Researchers from DeepMind and the University of Oxford also revealed in a new scientific paper the implications and repercussions of intelligent machines in the future, where they can be programmed to prevent them from learning to override human input.

However, back in 1942, Isaac Asimov already predicted the rise of artificial intelligence and robots when he published a short story revealing a set of three robotics laws, where the first and foremost law states that a robot may not hurt any human.

Reben says that his First Law machine can indeed draw out blood from a finger but he claims that this is just a "philosophical experiment". He even adds, this robot can make a decision even I, the creator cannot predict, saying that he does not even know who the robot will or will not hurt.

The roboticist admits that this can be intriguing, how a robot can inflict pain without any useful purpose, as this can spark an ethical debate, about robots that are specifically designed to do things that are ethically dubious.

This machine costs about US $200 to make after taking a few days to build. Reben says he has no plans to sell it commercially or exhibit it.

TagsAI, robot can inflict pain, harmful robot, Robotics, first of law robot, isaac asimov, three laws of robotics