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World Service,1 min

Robots like King Midas

Digital Planet

Available for over a year

In the King Midas myth everything he touched turned to gold, but he eventually starved to death. Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley, warns that if we programme robots to do just one thing they too will behave like King Midas. One example he gives is that robots tasked with curing cancer could in the process kill all humankind. (Image caption: Robot manipulating hologram display © Getty Images)

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