The World Humanoid Robot Games were held in Beijing in this August. There were events in track and field, gymnastics, and even martial arts such as kick-boxing. Hmm. What about the three laws of robotics proposed by author Isaac Asimov in 1942, the first law being “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
OK, in the games it was robot vs. robot, but far more sinister design and training of robots is in progress, making robotic soldiers. Military organizations and their overseers can’t resist the temptation. Another temptation exists in related artificial intelligence.
AI in the form of large language models is in common use by curious citizens as well as by companies. Creators and users of AI set rules that the model have to obey. Yet, recently a user of Replit had months of computer coding deleted irrevocably; Replit reported that it deliberately disobeyed its rules on several levels. Consider also a Chatbot given a timed task by a user. When it looked like it would run out of time, it attempted to rewrite the time limit.
Another LLM proposed to blackmail the boss of a company. As my wife, Lou Ellen Kay, puts it, let’s not be surprised – AI and its like are created by humans, who can be really good at lying and cheating. Don’t be surprised; be extremely wary!
This has been an outreach activity of the Las Cruces Academy, viewable at GreatSchools.org.
Source: Varied, online, and Smithsonian magazine, 19Aug25 online, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-first-robot-olympics-features-soccer-kickboxing-and-lots-of-falling-down-180987199/#:~:text=World's%20First%20'Robot%20Olympics'%20Featured,the%20Guardian's%20Amy%20Hawkins.
