Chess Robot Breaks Kid’s Finger

I guess the robot was programmed to do whatever it takes to win… even if that is causing bodily harm to a literal child.

During an event for the Moscow Chess Federation a robot was playing different games of chess against multiple children at the same time. Pretty cool right? Absolutely! But of course something had to go wrong.

To quote the president of the Chess Federation Sergey Lazarev, “A robot broke a child’s finger — this is, of course, bad”. Thanks for clearing that up, I was almost convinced that this was a good thing. According to the event organizers, the robot needed some time between turns to calculate the best move. The child was moving too quickly for the robot and it seems like the bot’s software thought the finger was a chess piece and grabbed it. Bystanders quickly ran over to help free the kid, but the damage was done and the finger was broken.

After getting his finger put in a cast the boy was healthy enough to come back to the events on a different day and continue to play.

Here’s the video

A chess-playing robot didn't take too kindly to the quick thinking chess moves of an opponent (a 7 year-old boy) – so the robot grabbed and broke his finger during a match in Moscow.pic.twitter.com/uJ1PebeASj

— James Melville (@JamesMelville) July 25, 2022

Ouch. Another reason to be cautious around robots and about the whole idea of robots in general.