Advances in artificial intelligence have many fearing that we could soon see Terminator-style killer robots. He claims that fear of intelligent robots will cause humanity to lose out on the benefits of robots. Advances in artificial intelligence have many fearing that we could soon see Terminator-style killer robots. 'The danger I see is if we spend too much of our attention focusing on Terminators and Skynet and the end of humanity,' Bishop told the Guardian ahead of a discussion about machine learning at the Royal Society. '[We are] generally just painting a too negative, emotive and one-sided view of artificial intelligence – we may end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater.'

Researchers from Germany are developing an artificial nervous system aimed at teaching robots how to feel pain. As well as allowing robots to quickly respond to potential damage to their systems, it could also protect humans who are increasingly working alongside them. The scientists plan to base the system on "insights from human pain research". To test it, they fitted a robotic arm with a fingertip sensor that could detect pressure and temperature. The researchers, from Leibniz University in Hannover, are developing a system that would allow a robot to "be able to detect and classify unforeseen physical states and disturbances, rate the potential damage they may cause to it and initiate appropriate countermeasures, ie reflexes", they explained.

Researchers from Germany are developing an artificial nervous system aimed at teaching robots how to feel pain. As well as allowing robots to quickly respond to potential damage to their systems, it could also protect humans who are increasingly working alongside them. The scientists plan to base the system on "insights from human pain research". To test it, they fitted a robotic arm with a fingertip sensor that could detect pressure and temperature. The researchers, from Leibniz University in Hannover, are developing a system that would allow a robot to "be able to detect and classify unforeseen physical states and disturbances, rate the potential damage they may cause to it and initiate appropriate countermeasures, ie reflexes", they explained.

One of the most useful things about robots is that they don't feel pain. Because of this, we have no problem putting them to work in dangerous environments or having them perform tasks that range between slightly unpleasant and definitely fatal to a human. And yet, a pair of German researchers believes that, in some cases, feeling pain might be a good capability for robots to have. The researchers, from Leibniz University of Hannover, are developing an "artificial robot nervous system to teach robots how to feel pain" and quickly react in order to avoid potential damage to their motors, gears, and electronics. They described the project last week at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Stockholm, Sweden, and we were there to ask them what in the name of Asimov they were thinking when they came up with this concept.