大衆工廠機器人殺人是工業事故

The killing of a technician by an industrial robot at a Volkswagen plant in Germany sparked a social media storm this week and raised fears about human safety in the coming era of robotics.

本週，大衆汽車(Volkswagen)德國工廠一臺工業機器人導致一名技師喪生的事件，在社交媒體上掀起了一場風暴。這件事還讓不少人擔心，在即將到來的機器人時代中，人類自身的安全會受到威脅。

But experts on artificial intelligence and automation said the incident near Kassel should be understood as an extremely rare industrial accident, rather than a warning about future threats. The accident, in which the robot crushed the man against a metal plate, occurred during installation and involved a fast-moving first-generation robot designed to operate inside a cage, well away from human workers.

但人工智能和自動化專家表示，卡塞爾市(Kassel)附近發生的這起事件，應被理解爲一起極爲罕見的工業事故，而不是關於人類未來會面臨哪些威脅的一次警告。這起事故是在技師裝配機器人的過程中發生的，機器人把技師擠到了一塊金屬板上。涉事的是一臺快速移動的第一代機器人，從設計上說，這種機器人是在籠子裏工作的，遠離人類員工。

“With present technology we cannot ‘blame’ the robot,” said Blay Whitby, artificial intelligence expert at the University of Sussex. “Robots are not yet at a level where their decision-making allows us to treat them as blameworthy.

薩塞克斯大學(University of Sussex)人工智能專家布萊•惠特比(Blay Whitby)表示：“就現有的技術而言，我們不能‘將責任記在’機器人頭上。機器人還沒到發展到那種程度，我們不應認爲它們能爲其所做的決策承擔責任。”

“This unfortunate accident is technically and morally comparable to a machine operator being crushed because he didn’t use the safety guard,” he added. “In this case it’s more complex and therefore more forgivable because ‘the safety guard’ [at Volkswagen] was provided by computer software and he was in the process of setting it up.”

他補充說：“從技術和道德角度說，這起不幸的事故相當於一名機械操作員因未採取安全防護而被擠死了。具體到這個例子，情況要更復雜一些，因此也更值得原諒，因爲（大衆的）‘安全防護’是由電腦軟件提供的，而他當時正在配置這一軟件。”

The next robotic generation — known variously as “workplace assistant robots”, “collaborative robots” or just “cobots” — are designed to operate uncaged alongside people. They incorporate sensors and other safety features to limit the force they can exert and prevent them running amok.

下一代機器人被稱爲“工作場所助理機器人”、“協作機器人”或簡稱“Cobot”（collaborative robot的縮寫——譯者注）。從設計上說，這種機器人是不在籠子裏而是在人們身邊工作的。這種機器人擁有傳感器及其他安防措施，能夠限制它們的力氣並防止它們橫衝直撞。

“Unfortunately people have exaggerated expectations and exaggerated fears about robots,” said Professor Alan Winfield of the Bristol Robotic Laboratory in southwest England. “They have been oversensitised by sci-fi movies and stories in the media.”

英格蘭西南部布里斯托機器人實驗室(Bristol Robotic Laboratory)的艾倫•溫菲爾德(Alan Winfield)教授表示：“很遺憾，人們對機器人的期望和恐懼都過了頭。他們被科幻電影和媒體報道弄得過於敏感。”

Professor Sandor Veres, head of Sheffield University’s Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research Group, pointed out that there have been very few fatal accidents with caged industrial robots since the manufacturers began installing them in the 1970s.

謝菲爾德大學(Sheffield University)自主系統和機器人研究小組(Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research Group)主管尚多爾•韋賴什(Sandor Veres)教授指出，自上世紀70年代製造商開始裝配在籠中工作的機器人以來，這種致人死亡的事故極其罕見。

Since the first recorded robot killing, in a US Ford factory in 1979, such incidents have occurred at a rate of less than one a year — making up a minuscule fraction of all deaths in industrial accidents.

第一起記錄在案的機器人致人死亡事件，發生在1979年的福特(Ford)美國工廠。自那以來，這類事件每年發生不到一起，在所有致人死亡的工業事故中只佔極小的比例。

Indeed robotic automation has probably cut the overall death rate in factories, because more people would have been killed through a range of other industrial accidents doing the work replaced by robots.

事實上，機器人自動化很可能降低了工廠中的整體死亡率，原因是假如由人力來做機器人所做的工作，本會有更多的人在一系列工業事故中喪生。