This robot learned not to mess with other people’s stuff

Researchers have programmed a bot to grasp the concept of ownership

polite robot

RESPECTFUL ROBOT  In experiments with blocks on a table, a polite robot learned which blocks belonged to someone, as well as social protocols for what it was allowed to do with owned objects.

X. Tan, J. Brawer and B. Scassellati/AAAI-19

HONOLULU — The notion of ownership comes so easily to humans that even preschoolers have got it down.