Yeah... thats the best title I could come up with, but heres the intro snippet:

"The Random Darknet Shopper, an automated online shopping bot with a budget of $100 a week in Bitcoin, is programmed to do a very specific task: go to one particular marketplace on the Deep Web and make one random purchase a week with the provided allowance. The purchases have all been compiled for an art show in Zurich, Switzerland titled The Darknet: From Memes to Onionland, which runs through January 11."

Problem is... it seems to have been doing its own thing (might want to read the rest of the story - its not long):

http://fusion.net/story/35883/robots-are-starting-to-break-the-law-and-nobody-knows-what-to-do-about-it/

O____o!

So... thoughts?!

Edit: might explain some of the spam-attacks

They should have created the bot as a corporate entity, that way someone would have to prosecute the bot and not its creators and that would have been hilarious but well might be the norm in the future.

I agree with the lawyer, this was created as an art show but they should already establish preliminary laws so people can't abuse it.

Aye - though as the bot is purchasing from "the darknet"... I suppose maybe thats where the "art" side of things comes in?!

I suppose but I thought the whole part of the art was their randomize algorithm which we will apply some meaning to depending on the purchase. It would be interesting if they could make two distinct settings, one where the bot is allowed to purchase anything and one where it's not allowed to purchase things based upon a black list (contrabands, drugs, illegal weapons etc..).

Who gets the blame if it orders a low yield nuke? Or at least parts to create one based upon its budget.

Those who create the algorithm. The randomness doesn't remove culpability. It should be treated as any other automated system under the control of its creator(s) even if "control" means the shopping bot is doing its own thing.

Probably a good thing that this is now in the realm of public discussion and legal scrutiny. Personally I would give this particular case a pass, maybe under the guise of "whistleblower".



Now, it would be cool if the bot made the discovery of some long-lost video game which eventually led to the game showing up here.