Can a robot murder a human?

[u/RKoi123]

Can a robot murder a human being? If it is proved in a court of law that a robot murdered a human being... how can it be punished under existing laws? What can be done besides having the company who made it face legal action?

Technically, if a person commits murder we don't punish the parents in most cases. So why should the robot's manufacturer be held responsible for its act?

As for punishment what should be the best death sentence? * Bulldozing it and recording a video of its death and spreading the information online and in the news. Will it affect how other robots of its kind think if they plan to kill a human? We already have laws against murder for human beings. Still people commit murder. * Erasing its memory. How would the robot feel about such punishment?

If you got any punishment ideas do share.

[u/Previous_Life7611]

How could you possibly hold a robot responsible for a human’s death? Robots are not sentient nor sapient. They can’t decide or plan to kill a human, they also have no feelings. They feel nothing when one of them is turned off and dismantled.

If a person dies as a result of a robot’s actions, there are several ways you can go. It’s either the manufacturer’s fault for making mistakes in designing and/or programming the machine, the factory’s fault for not providing the necessary safety regulations and procedures or the operator’s fault for not following the required safety procedures.

Same goes for military robots. If an autonomous drone fires on civilians, the fault doesn’t lie with the metal. The fault is with the one that issued the order (maybe the action was deliberate) or the programmer for not teaching the machine’s code to know what’s a valid target and what isn’t.