A chess robot playing three games at once broke a 7-year-old boy’s finger in a tournament that ended Thursday.
Russian-language news outlet Baza, which is state-owned, posted video footage of the moment to its Telegram channel and said the boy suffered a fracture but is otherwise okay. Twitter netizens then nabbed the footage and uploaded it online for all to see, like the video shown below.
According to Baza , the robot “squeezed” the kid’s finger, but it’s possible that’s a mistranslation or just a little off. The video makes it seem as if the robot placed its “finger” or a chess piece down on top of the kid’s, as if it were just confused.
Russian news outlet TASS reported that the child was able to finish the tournament while wearing a cast, but that his parents may be filing suit — translated and reported via PC Gamer yesterday. For now, authorities think the injury was an accident.
“The robot broke the child’s finger — this, of course, is bad,” Moscow Chess Federation president Sergey Lazarev told TASS , via PCG. “The robot was rented by us, it has been exhibited in many places, for a long time, with specialists. Apparently, the operators overlooked it. The child made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried , the robot grabbed him. We have nothing to do with the robot.”
Sergey Smagin, a deputy of the Moscow Chess Federation, also said this was the first time in his memory he could remember a robot breaking anyone’s finger.
In all likelihood the robot, which was admittedly playing multiple opponents, just got confused or tried to make a move at a bad time.
Good thing there’s not a violent chess bot on the loose at the same time Google AI’s was (most likely falsely) accused of gaining sentience.
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