RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Researchers at Tufts University are teaching robots a technique teenagers long ago mastered, how to say no to an order. When the researcher asks a robot to walk off a ledge, the robot asks itself, do I know how to? Am I able to? Am I obligated based on my social role? The robot looks at the ledge and concludes.
UNIDENTIFIED ROBOT: That is unsafe.
MONTAGNE: Yeah, and he didn't jump. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
