Couldn't he have just built himself a robot that could assist him as another way to get out of going to an assisted living home?

So the robot ignored the first law of robotics?

@Ozyman666: thats because it was told to do so?
YEA I dont want an answer because im going to get confused.
Anyways
thats sad, people should visit their elderly relatives more often and not just dump them in a "home"

@Ozyman666 & Simpsons-Movie-ruled: Since the Three Laws apply only to positronic robots, and there's no indication here that this "robot" had any sort of intelligence circuitry, I think we can safely assume that the First Law was not violated.

Further, is this even a robot? The Robot World News piece calls it a "complex machine" in the second paragraph, and the fact that a remote control is needed to operate the device makes it comparable to a television set or a radio-controlled vehicle.

@Ozyman666: Maybe it failed the Positronic Bar Exam.
Sorry. This is very tragic. Poor guy has no doubt now convinced his family that he was mentally competent enough to carry a complex plan.

I for one welcome our robot killing-machine overlords.

This so reminds me of the suicide booth in Futurama Episode 1.

@Zapp Brannigan's Girdle: I believe it was based on a machine a paraplegic man in Texas built to allow himself to continue to hunt, using a remote control to aim the gun. His plan was tyo open up a hunting preserve for paraplegics, and then branch out into Internet hunting.

"Hey, Ro, where you goin' with that gun in your waldo?"

He should have built several and used them to protect him from his family. Very sad.

and does anyone think that this totally raises some legal and ethical issues regarding the usage of robots for Assisted Suicide, euthanasia and any future AI designed to kill people.

@Simpsons-Movie-ruled: Sometimes it's not that simple. My father's a double amputee and he has to be in an assisted living home. My mother works full time, as do my sister and I. The insurance pays for the home, his physical therapy, all of his meds (he's diabetic and on dialysis). Insurance won't pay for in-home care, and out-of-pocket it costs about $250 per day. My mother can't take care of him because he's too heavy for her to lift or carry, and if he quit working she'd lose her house. He hates not being able to be home, but he understands it's the best option for him.

It wasn't the 'AI' sort of robot, it was the remote-operation sort.

I applaud his success at ending his life how and when he wanted. If we can't choose when to die, there is no liberty. If our lives aren't our own, what do we have?
-Kle.