London: Even as the scale of interaction between humans and technology increases, a new research has shown that people tend to take more risks when prodded by a robot. The research, published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, showed that robots can encourage people to take greater risks in a simulated gambling scenario than they would if there was nothing to influence their behaviours. The researcher now believe that further studies are needed to see whether similar results would emerge from human interaction with other artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as digital assistants or on-screen avatars. "On the one hand, our results might raise alarms about the prospect of robots causing harm by increasing risky behaviour," said Yaniv Hanoch, Associate Professor in Risk Management at the University of Southampton in Britain. "On the other hand, our data points to the possibility of using robots and AI in preventive programmes, such as anti-smoking campaigns in schools, and with hard to reach populations, such as addicts."