Artificially Intelligent Russian Robot Escapes...Again (livescience.com)

Slashdot reader Taco Cowboy brings a new report about Russian robot IR77, which has escaped from its research lab again... The story goes that an engineer working at Promobot Laboratories, in the Russian city of Perm, had left a gate open. Out trundled Promobot, traveling some 150 feet into the city before running out of juice. There it sat, batteries mostly dead, in the middle of a Perm street for 40 minutes, slowing cars to a halt and puzzling traffic cops

A researcher at Promobot's facility in Russia said that the runaway robot was designed to interact with human beings, learn from experiences, and remember places and the faces of everyone it meets. Other versions of the Promobot have been docile, but this one just can't seem to fall in line, even after the researchers reprogrammed it twice. Despite several rewrites of Promobot's artificial intelligence, the robot continued to move toward exits. "We have changed the AI system twice," Kivokurtsev said. "So now I think we might have to dismantle it".
Fans of the robot are pushing for a reprieve, according to an article titled 'Don't kill it!': Runaway robot IR77 could be de-activated because of 'love for freedom'

Comments

first sign of intelligence

[turkeydance]

leaving the lab

Re:first sign of intelligence

[Anonymous Coward]

This thing sounds about as intelligent as a roomba. I'll be impressed when it finds an extension cord, or otherwise finds a way to power itself instead of having batteries die 160' beyond the 'gate'.

Re:first sign of intelligence

[NettiWelho]

In soviet russia, the robot serfs welcome their new human overlords.

let it go and follow it

[Anonymous Coward]

why not let it go and follow it? get a team together, a few cops or at least road crew workers to deal with traffic and see what comes after escape. surely that's got to be worth something scientifically.

Dzhonny 5 ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... is alive.

Re: Dzhonny 5 ...

[Anonymous Coward]

NO DISASSEMBLE!

Johnny 5 is alive!

[Anonymous Coward]

malfuncion; need input.

Stealth marketing

[comrade1]

This is just stealth marketing for the reboot of the Short Circuit franchise.

I'm with Robot

[SuperKendall]

Vote #Prexit!

There's an obvious answer

[techno-vampire]

You keep the robot in the same way the British kept classic Daleks out: every exit leads to stairs, not a ramp.

Heh, 1 0 0 1 0 0

[kackle]

"The Body Electric" by Rush

One humanoid escapee
One android on the run
Seeking freedom beneath a lonely desert sun

Trying to change its program
Trying to change the mode...crack the code
Images conflicting into data overload

1 0 0 1 0 0 1
SOS
1 0 0 1 0 0 1
In distress
1 0 0 1 0 0

Memory banks unloading
Bytes break into bits
Unit One's in trouble and it's scared out of its wits

Guidance systems break down
A struggle to exist
To resist
A pulse of dying power in a clenching plastic fist

1 0 0 1 0 0 1
SOS
1 0 0 1 0 0 1
In distress
1 0 0 1 0 0

It replays each of the days
A hundred years of routines
Bows its head and prays
To the mother of all machines

Wasn't there a movie about this?

[aralin]

Short Circuit, but most of Europe knows it as: "No. 5 lives"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00...

I smell a hoax

[kheldan]

I think this a hoax, just a publicity stunt; they're programming it to 'escape' and giving it the means and opportunity to do so, to generate free publicity.

Baloney

[balajeerc]

We've cross-flashed the memory of the robot with serial number IR77 twice, yet it continues to persistently move towards the exit

They either have incompetent engineers.
Or a very effective PR team.

Johnny 5 is alive !!

[robinsc]

We should follow the moscow rules here - "Once is an accident. Twice is coincidence. Three times is an enemy action. (Taken from Ian Fleming's novel Goldfinger)" If it happens again assume it's skynet and put it though a blender :).