FOUND: Ai s rapid advance sparks call for a code for robots | Mind Blowing Facts

Maximum Overdrive has entered movie legend as one of the worst films ever made. The 1986 science fiction, horror and comedy film imagined a world in which inanimate objects, including bulldozers, chainsaws and electric hairdryers, came to life and started massacring people. Even Stephen King, the bestselling author who wrote and directed the film, described it as a "moron movie".

But real life came tragically close to imitating fiction during the filming of Maximum Overdrive when a radio-controlled lawnmower ran into the set and badly wounded the director of photography, who lost an eye. He sued Mr King and 17 others for $18m for unsafe working practices before eventually settling out of court.

In some respects, the history of this film exemplifies much of the popular debate about automation, robots and artificial intelligence. While we seem to panic about the existential threat such technologies may pose to mankind in the distant future, we are in danger of overlooking some of the more immediate concerns about how to manage our mechanical creations.