Robots have been a common component in the manufacturing industry, but recently, they have started performing jobs that expose them to the society like never before. More and more robots are doing jobs like delivering pizzas, serving food, and even roaming around a certain perimeter to ensure security. In short, they are now exposed to human contact more than ever.
Perhaps it's because of this that we have seen a surge of attacks on these useful metallic machines. It is quite reasonable to think that a certain amount of vandalism would accompany that exposure. However, the manner and substance of these attacks could be described as disturbing, and more alarmingly, it's starting to become a trend.
One such example is what took place recently in California where a drunk man got violent against an armless robot that was casually patrolling the perimeters to ensure the security of the area. According to PC Mag, the intoxicated man knocked down the 300-lb robot for no apparent reason. Furthermore, it has been found that a string of similar cases has been reported where people attack robots that were just doing their jobs.
Robot apocalypse has clearly been mentioned as a possibility in the near future by important tech icons and entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Jack Ma. However, these AI-driven machines also have contributed unspeakable benefits to fields like medicine, transportation, technology, and manufacturing. In other words, society would not be partly it is today if it were not for these robots.
According to Extreme Tech, one possible reason why this disturbing violence against robots is starting to become a trend is the fact that these robots are faceless, not resembling a person at any level. Psychology has studied that people react more compassionately to machines that have human faces. Perhaps, robot companies should start designing robots that look a bit like humans.
