Before the trial, the machine had been prepped with hundreds of animal images and books on emotions. It could identify joy, sadness, anger, and fear. On paper, it was flawless. But the moment the lion appeared, the system broke down. The logs showed only:
“Cat big. Scared.”
Then it glitched, repeating “scared” more than 100 times until it froze completely. Memory wipes didn’t help. The fear was buried so deep that every time the robot saw a four legged creature, from a goat to a house cat, it responded the same way: “No. Scared.”
Engineers eventually had to tear out part of its CPU, a fix that cost the company half a million dollars and nearly eight months of work. The experiment ended with the first robot in history diagnosed with PTSD. #animals #wholesome
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