AI Gone Wrong? Chess Robot Breaks Child's Finger at Russia Tournament

"It appears that we need the First Law of Robotics NOW!" quips Slashdot reader Bruce66423.

Mint reports: During a tournament in Moscow, a chess-playing robot fractured a 7-year-old boy's finger when the youngster attempted a quick move without giving the device enough time to finish its task. On July 19, at the Moscow Chess Open competition, the incident took place. The youngster is fine, but one of his fingers has been broken, according to Sergey Smagin, vice president of the Russian Chess Federation, who spoke to state-run news organisation RIA Novosti.

One of the top 30 young chess players in Moscow is a nine-year-old named Christopher. He's very good in a nation where chess has become a national obsession.

"The boy is all right," the VP of the Russian Chess Federation assured Russia's state-run news organization. "They put a plaster cast on the finger to heal faster."

The child's finger was broken by the robot. This is not good. A video on social media shows a robot taking a piece from a boy. The robot grabbed the boy's finger as he made his own move. A group of people rush to help a boy who is trapped. The machine had played many previous games. The boy finished the tournament in a cast.

From the Guardian: Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, told Baza the robot appeared to pounce after it took one of the boy's pieces. Rather than waiting for the machine to complete its move, the boy opted for a quick riposte, he said. "There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them. When he made his move, he did not realise he first had to wait," Smagin said. "This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall," he added. Lazarev had a different account, saying the child had "made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried and the robot grabbed him". Either way, he said, the robot's suppliers were "going to have to think again"....

One person is killed annually by an industrial robot in the US. According to the US occupational safety administration, the majority of occupational accidents have been fatal.

Reportedly the boy's parents have now contacted the public prosecutor's office. "A Russian grandmaster, Sergey Karjakin, said the incident was no doubt due to 'some kind of software error or something.'"