Three Laws of Robotics
E201014
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of fictional ethical rules devised by Isaac Asimov to govern the behavior of intelligent robots and prevent them from harming humans.
All labels observed (8)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Three Laws of Robotics canonical | 32 |
| First Law of Robotics | 4 |
| Second Law of Robotics | 2 |
| Asimov's Robot universe | 1 |
| Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics | 1 |
| The Laws of Robotics (essay) | 1 |
| Third Law of Robotics | 1 |
| Zeroth Law of Robotics | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1799511 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Three Laws of Robotics Context triple: [I, Robot, centralConcept, Three Laws of Robotics]
-
A.
I, Robot
I, Robot is a seminal science fiction short story collection by Isaac Asimov that explores the ethical and logical implications of advanced robotics and the famous Three Laws of Robotics.
-
B.
Clarke's three laws
Clarke's three laws are a set of aphorisms about science and technology, most famously stating that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-
C.
The Robots of Dawn
The Robots of Dawn is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov that continues the adventures of detective Elijah Baley as he investigates a high-stakes robotic "murder" on the Spacer world of Aurora, further developing Asimov’s robot universe and the Three Laws of Robotics.
-
D.
Robots and Empire
Robots and Empire is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov that bridges his Robot and Foundation series, exploring the long-term consequences of human–robot relations and the origins of key galactic events.
-
E.
The Rest of the Robots
The Rest of the Robots is a science fiction short story collection by Isaac Asimov that gathers many of his classic robot tales exploring the implications of the Three Laws of Robotics.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Three Laws of Robotics Target entity description: The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of fictional ethical rules devised by Isaac Asimov to govern the behavior of intelligent robots and prevent them from harming humans.
-
A.
I, Robot
I, Robot is a seminal science fiction short story collection by Isaac Asimov that explores the ethical and logical implications of advanced robotics and the famous Three Laws of Robotics.
-
B.
Clarke's three laws
Clarke's three laws are a set of aphorisms about science and technology, most famously stating that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-
C.
The Robots of Dawn
The Robots of Dawn is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov that continues the adventures of detective Elijah Baley as he investigates a high-stakes robotic "murder" on the Spacer world of Aurora, further developing Asimov’s robot universe and the Three Laws of Robotics.
-
D.
Robots and Empire
Robots and Empire is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov that bridges his Robot and Foundation series, exploring the long-term consequences of human–robot relations and the origins of key galactic events.
-
E.
The Rest of the Robots
The Rest of the Robots is a science fiction short story collection by Isaac Asimov that gathers many of his classic robot tales exploring the implications of the Three Laws of Robotics.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
concept in science fiction
ⓘ
set of fictional laws ⓘ |
| appliesTo | intelligent robots ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| creator | Isaac Asimov ⓘ |
| describedAs | fictional ethical rules for robots ⓘ |
| describedBySource |
I, Robot
ⓘ
surface form:
Asimov’s essays on robotics
|
| fictionalUniverse |
Asimov universe
ⓘ
surface form:
Asimov’s Foundation universe
Asimov's positronic robot universe ⓘ
surface form:
Asimov’s Robot universe
|
| fieldOfWork |
ethics
ⓘ
robotics ⓘ |
| follows | hierarchical priority structure ⓘ |
| genre | science fiction ⓘ |
| hasCulturalImpact |
referenced in academic literature on machine ethics
ⓘ
referenced in discussions of real-world AI design ⓘ referenced in films about robots ⓘ referenced in television series about robots ⓘ referenced in video games featuring robots ⓘ |
| hasEffect |
constrains robot behavior toward humans
ⓘ
creates hierarchy of obligations for robots ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Three Laws of Robotics
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
First Law of Robotics
Three Laws of Robotics self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Second Law of Robotics
Third Law of Robotics ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
conflict between rules
ⓘ
human–robot interaction ⓘ unintended consequences of rigid rules ⓘ |
| hasVariant | Zeroth Law of Robotics ⓘ |
| inception | 1942 ⓘ |
| influenced |
AI safety discussions
ⓘ
popular culture depictions of robots ⓘ robotics ethics discourse ⓘ |
| influencedBy | earlier robot fiction ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
artificial intelligence
ⓘ
robot ethics ⓘ robots ⓘ |
| notableWork |
I, Robot
ⓘ
Runaround ⓘ |
| orderOfPriority |
First Law supersedes Second Law
ⓘ
First Law supersedes Third Law ⓘ Second Law supersedes Third Law ⓘ |
| purpose | prevent robots from harming humans ⓘ |
| statedIn |
I, Robot
ⓘ
Runaround ⓘ |
| usedIn |
I, Robot
ⓘ
surface form:
Asimov robot stories
Foundation universe ⓘ Robot series ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Three Laws of Robotics Description of subject: The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of fictional ethical rules devised by Isaac Asimov to govern the behavior of intelligent robots and prevent them from harming humans.
Referenced by (43)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Asimov's Robot universe
this entity surface form:
Zeroth Law of Robotics
this entity surface form:
First Law of Robotics
this entity surface form:
Second Law of Robotics
this entity surface form:
First Law of Robotics
this entity surface form:
Second Law of Robotics
this entity surface form:
Third Law of Robotics
this entity surface form:
First Law of Robotics
this entity surface form:
First Law of Robotics
this entity surface form:
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics
this entity surface form:
The Laws of Robotics (essay)