Workers rage against the machine

● Science-fiction films often depict the fear that, one day, robots will seize power over humanity. And with machines featuring in many workplaces, it appears humans have started the fightback.

A study by De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, has found that workers are deliberately sabotaging and assaulting the robots they work alongside every day, amid fears they will take over their jobs.

Professor Jonathan Payne, who led the study into the use of robotics in health care, said British employers are less likely to engage with employees to explain why they want to use robots in the first place, creating tension between humans and the robots that are meant to help them.

“We heard stories of workers standing in the way of robots, and minor acts of sabotage — and not playing along with them,” he said. This attitude stands in stark contrast to workplaces in Norway, where employees give robots affectionate names and use them to avoid doing more physical or repetitive tasks, Payne said.

Starship Technologies, a delivery company, said last year people often kick their robots as they roll down the street, and a security robot in San Francisco two years ago had to be removed after it was knocked over and smeared with faeces.

Recent tests by Margiotta, a Scottish supermarket chain that installed a robot helper named Fabio, ended in tragedy after he was relegated to giving samples of pulled pork and eventually fired for “alarming customers”. — © The Daily Telegraph, London