A "robot tax" could help protect American workers from the growing threat of automation, according to the latest policy proposal from Mayor Bill de Blasio's longshot presidential campaign. The Democratic mayor on Thursday proposed a tax against companies that bring in robots to replace humans without giving those workers new jobs. Such firms would have to pay five years' worth of payroll taxes for every person whose job is cut. De Blasio also proposed closing loopholes that allow corporations to deduct job-killing technology investments from their taxes. A new Federal Automation and Worker Protection Agency would use money from that reform and the new robot tax to create new jobs in health care, early-childhood education and green energy, according to the mayor's proposal.

Robots could become radicalised if they are badly coded, an expert has warned. Professor of electrical and computer engineering Subhash Kak from Oklahoma University believes robots could become mass murderers if they are not wired correctly. Although the danger does not exist with the current technology, Dr Kak believes future technical malfunctions could put thousands of peoples' lives at risk. Earlier this year he issued another chilling warning saying that the machine takeover will lead mankind into a'hellish dystopia'. Robots could become radicalised if they are badly coded, a computer engineer has warned.

A factory in China replaced 60,000 of its human workers with robots. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes that artificial intelligence must "respect human autonomy," but Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana told Bloomberg BNA that this robot workforce is "coming faster than anybody realizes." With robots primed to swoop in and take about 5 million jobs by 2020, it's about damn time we braced ourselves for our new workforce. A draft report from the European Parliament suggested a few tips on how us mere humans can get ready for the ever-increasing automated workforce, CNN reported. In the event that "advanced robots" begin to displace us in "large numbers," CNN reported, the European Parliament report suggests that the European Commission make the owners of the aforementioned roboworkers pay taxes or give to Social Security.