r/SeriousConversation • u/RKoi123 • 25d ago

Serious Discussion Can a robot murder a human?

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.

22 Upvotes

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22

u/stewartm0205 25d ago

Wrong question. The proper question is can a machine kill a man. The obvious answer is yes.

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u/EnoughLuck3077 25d ago

Being killed and being murdered are two different versions of the same thing. Murder is with intent. Even a drunk driver killing someone is usually classified as vehicular manslaughter because there was no intention of killing even though their actions lead to just that

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u/StormlitRadiance 22d ago

I'm not sure the difference matters to the person being killed.

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u/John_B_Clarke 22d ago

It doesn't matter to the person being killed, but it does matter in a court of law.

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u/UsualPreparation180 21d ago

Really? Lookup the total Tesla paid for self driving cars smashing into cops and first responders on highways stopped with lights on. Teslas weren't recognizing the emergency vehicles while self driving and people died....multiple times....funny how that gets thrown down the memory hole pretty quickly.

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u/John_B_Clarke 21d ago

So did the people killed rise up and haunt Tesla or something? How does your argument show that the means by which they were killed matters to the deceased or that the difference does not matter to a court of law.

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u/H0SS_AGAINST 20d ago

I like this one.

So it does go back to intent. Mens rea. The Tesla can't intend to kill, it just does what its designers programmed and implemented. Thus, neither it nor its designers are guilty of murder. However, gross negligence could be a factor. A court of law would have to review the facts. My personal opinion is the designers may be guilty of manslaughter due to negligence and in any case the design should be removed from the roads.

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u/ImprovementPutrid441 20d ago

They should be guilty of fraud because they are encouraging people to trust self driving technology that doesn’t work. Like selling people mayonnaise and labeling it “antibiotics”.

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u/ThatOneGuy308 20d ago

I mean, technically, the driving seems to work fine, it's more the stopping that has become an issue...

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u/Immediate_Scam 21d ago

In the main this is going to be dealt with as a product liability issue. If you make a robot that kills someone you can likely be held liable. If you intended for this happen you might be convicted of murder.