Is it OK to torture a robot?

Image | pleotorture

Caption: Photo courtesy Kate Darling

Audio | Spark : Robot Torture

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Kate Darling, a research specialist at the MIT media lab, created a robot dinosaur torture workshop as part of her ongoing work on robot ethics. She wanted to determine how people felt about torturing robots. How much of it is about group dynamics? Or a reluctance to destroy expensive technology? And should we treat robots the same way we treat a pet cat?