Robot goes rogue, breaks child’s finger during chess match

In the video, the robotic arm pinches the boy’s finger for several seconds before a woman followed by three men rush in and eventually free him.

The fear of tech gone rogue manifested itself in the Moscow Open chess tournament last week, when a robot, unsettled by a 7-year-old's quick response, grabbed and broke his finger. (Twitter/Screengrab)

We have read books and seen movies about how if technology goes rogue, it comes back to bite the hand of its creator.

The fear of tech gone rogue manifested itself in the Moscow Open chess tournament last week, when a robot, unsettled by a 7-year-old’s quick response, grabbed and broke his finger.

The child had just had a piece taken by the robot and rushed to make his next move which was apparently against the safety rules.

Jesus… A robot broke kid‘s finger at Chess Tournament in Moscow @elonmusk @MagnusCarlsen

There is no violence in chess, they said.

Come and play, they said. https://t.co/W7sgnxAFCi pic.twitter.com/OVBGCv2R9H

— 🆁🆄🆂🆂🅸🅰🅽 🅼🅰🆁🅺🅴🆃 (@russian_market) July 21, 2022

“There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them. When he made his move, he did not realise he first had to wait,” Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, said to Baza. “This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall,” he added.

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After the incident, Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation, told Russia’s TASS news agency, “The robot broke the child’s finger – this, of course, is bad. The robot was rented by us, it has been exhibited in many places, for a long time, with specialists. Apparently, the operators overlooked it. The child made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried , the robot grabbed him. We have nothing to do with the robot.”

In the video, the robotic arm pinches the boy’s finger for several seconds before a woman followed by three men rush in and eventually free him.