An American engineer has built the world’s first robot which is entirely designed to cause human beings pain.
The pain machine breaks the first rule in the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s famous "laws of robotics", which states that machines should never hurt humans.
"No one’s actually made a robot that was built to intentionally hurt and injure someone," robot designer and artist Alexander Reben told Fast Company.
"I wanted to make a robot that does this that actually exists.
"[It was] important to take it out of the thought experiment realm into reality, because once something exists in the world, you have to confront it. It becomes more urgent. You can’t just pontificate about it."
Luckily for us humans, the pain-bot is not quite the shotgun-wielding death machine depicted in the Terminator films.
Its only weapon is a small needle attached to a long arm, which is used to inflict a small amount of agony on a human victim.
The robot randomly decides whether to attack people who are brave enough to put their hands beneath its arm, although it's not strong enough to cause major injury.
Reben said the aim of the project wasn't to hasten the end of humanity, but to encourage people to start discussing the prospect that robots could soon have some terrifying powers.
"I want people to start confronting the physicality of it," Reben says. "It will raise a bit more awareness outside the philosophical realm."
"There’s always going to be situations where the unforeseen is going to happen, and how to deal with that is going to be an important thing to think about."
Last year, the world famous British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking claimed robots and artificial intelligence could wipe humans off the face of the planet.
