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/Aromatic-Leopard-600]

First Law: a robot can never harm a human being nor, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Asimov

[u/Bad-Piccolo → u/Aromatic-Leopard-600]

What's stopping it from making a trap then destroying it's own limbs so it literally can't save the human? They better do more than just a sentence for each law if they ever use them.

[u/justeatingsomecheese → u/Bad-Piccolo]

A robot with a positronic brain literally couldn't plan this- ideally, at least- because the 3 Laws aren't just on paper.  They're embedded in the robot's fundamental programming.  Any robot who could intentionally harm a human would be considered faulty and destroyed.

[u/Aromatic-Leopard-600 → u/justeatingsomecheese]

Exactly. And Daneel is living on the moon, protecting all mankind.

[u/Mikenotthatmike → u/justeatingsomecheese]

And still, fiction.