WHEN AI GOES WRONG
Artificial intelligence allows machines to think like humans, at least in theory. Here are seven instances when these smart computers didn’t function as planned
WORDS AILSA HARVEY
DID YOU KNOW? Promobot IR77 blocked traffic for 40 minutes during its escape
Did you know?
Over 80 per cent of businesses use AI
Promobot IR77 was a humanoid robot designed for face-to-face interactions with humans
ROBOT ESCAPE
In 2016, a Russian robot called Promobot IR77 demonstrated how machines can navigate the world without human assistance when it became a persistent escape artist. The robot, which was designed to interact with humans as a tour guide, fled its laboratory in Perm, Russia, after a researcher left the door open. IR77 travelled 50 metres across the nearby roads and caused a traffic jam before running out of battery and being returned to the laboratory.
After the initial escape, the scientists attempted to reprogram the robot, but it kept moving in the same direction towards the door it successfully fled through. Though in the first instance the robot escaped because there was nothing to stop it, its future escape attempts showed that the computer used its memory to target the same route. Their lack of control over the robot’s intentions led the scientists to shut the project down.