Robot ordered to write lines as punishment for crime it hasn’t committed yet

A robotic arm writes repeated promises not to hurt humans in artist Filipe Vilas-Boas and architect Paul Coudamy’s installation The Punishment. The piece – which is being shown at digital festival Futur en Seine in Paris from 8 to 10 June – was designed to raise awareness of the looming threat of automation, and address people’s “fear and fascination“ with robots. Sat at a typical wooden school desk, the orange arm continually writes the same phrase – “I must not hunt humans“ – in a notebook placed in front of it. Vilas-Boas considers it “a preventive punishment for its possible future disobedience“. The artist chose the phrase as a reference to science fiction author Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, devised in 1942 and used as a plot point in a number of his stories. They call for a robot to refrain from injuring any human being, to protect them from harm and to obey their orders. “Technologies are merging at high speed, notably