A robot at a Michigan car factory killed a human employee after it “went rogue” and “crushed her skull“, according to a new lawsuit filed by the employee’s husband.
“The robot from section 130 should have never entered section 140, and should have never attempted to load a hitch assembly within a fixture that was already loaded with a hitch assembly,” the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, the accident happened July 7, 2015, at Ionia-based Ventra Ionia, which specializes in the welding and stamping of truck bumpers and trailer hitches. For unknown reasons, a robot’s arm “took Wanda by surprise, entering the section she was working in” and “hit and crushed Wanda’s head between a hitch assembly it was attempting to place” in a fixture.
Elon Musk has formed a company to protect man from the “demon” of robotic artificial intelligence, claiming that robots will “destroy mankind.”
In one part of a documentary investigating the matter, a scientist, who has invented a robot to help in the health care industry, asks his female robot a question. He is totally surprised and shocked when she answers in a way he did not expect.
He asked her if she would kill humans. He obviously expects her to say, “no”, but she says, “yes, I would kill humans.”
The incident at the Michigan car factory suggests advanced AI robots may have already started taking matters into their own hands.
The Independent reports:
Wanda Holbrook, who had serviced machinery at the Ventra Ionia Mains plant in Michigan for 12 years, was “trapped by robotic machinery and pronounced dead at the scene” in July 2015.
The 57-year-old’s husband, William Holbrook, filed a wrongful death complaint in Michigan federal court, naming five US robotics companies: Prodomax, Flex-N-Gate, FANUC, Nachi, and Lincoln Electric.
Ms Holbrook was working in the plant’s “100 section” when a robot unexpectedly began to move.
Cells in the section are separated by safety doors and the robot should not have been able to reach her, but somehow it did, the lawsuit claims.
It loaded a trailer attachment assembly part onto her head, crushing her skull.
“Wanda was working in either section 140 or 150 within the ‘100’ cell, when a robot from section 130 took Wanda by surprise, entering the section she was working in,” the complaint says.
“Upon entering the section, the robot hit and crushed Wanda’s head between a hitch assembly it was attempting to place in the fixture of section 140, and a hitch assembly that was already in the fixture.”
Co-workers who eventually realised something was wrong found Ms Holbrook dead from severe head trauma.
Her death “devastated her husband, three children, grandchildren and dozens of co-workers who filled the back four pews at her funeral,” the Detroit Free Press reported.
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