Third Law of Robotics
E754391
The Third Law of Robotics is one of Isaac Asimov’s fictional ethical rules for robots, requiring them to protect their own existence as long as this does not conflict with higher-priority laws about obeying humans and preventing harm.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Third Law of Robotics canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8493149 — 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: Third Law of Robotics Context triple: [U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men Corporation, governsRobotsBy, Third Law of Robotics]
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A.
Second Law of Robotics
The Second Law of Robotics is one of Isaac Asimov’s fictional ethical rules for robots, requiring them to obey human orders unless such orders conflict with the First Law.
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B.
Zeroth Law of Robotics
The Zeroth Law of Robotics is an additional principle introduced by Isaac Asimov that prioritizes the protection of humanity as a whole above the safety or obedience of individual humans.
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C.
Three Laws of Robotics
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.
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D.
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."
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E.
The New Laws of Robotics (essay)
"The New Laws of Robotics" is an essay by Isaac Asimov that revisits and updates his famous Three Laws of Robotics to address more complex ethical and technological issues in human-robot interaction.
- 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: Third Law of Robotics Target entity description: The Third Law of Robotics is one of Isaac Asimov’s fictional ethical rules for robots, requiring them to protect their own existence as long as this does not conflict with higher-priority laws about obeying humans and preventing harm.
-
A.
Second Law of Robotics
The Second Law of Robotics is one of Isaac Asimov’s fictional ethical rules for robots, requiring them to obey human orders unless such orders conflict with the First Law.
-
B.
Zeroth Law of Robotics
The Zeroth Law of Robotics is an additional principle introduced by Isaac Asimov that prioritizes the protection of humanity as a whole above the safety or obedience of individual humans.
-
C.
Three Laws of Robotics
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.
-
D.
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."
-
E.
The New Laws of Robotics (essay)
"The New Laws of Robotics" is an essay by Isaac Asimov that revisits and updates his famous Three Laws of Robotics to address more complex ethical and technological issues in human-robot interaction.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
ethical principle for robots
ⓘ
fictional law ⓘ rule of robotics ⓘ |
| appliesTo | robots ⓘ |
| concerns | self-preservation of robots ⓘ |
| creator | Isaac Asimov NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| definesObligation | robot self-protection ⓘ |
| describesRelationship |
robot’s duty to preserve itself unless this conflicts with obeying human orders
ⓘ
robot’s duty to preserve itself unless this conflicts with preventing harm to humans ⓘ |
| ethicalDomain | robot ethics ⓘ |
| fictionalUniverse |
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation universe
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Isaac Asimov’s Robot series NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceAuthor | Isaac Asimov NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceWork | Runaround NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceYear | 1942 ⓘ |
| hasConceptualFocus | safety of the robot ⓘ |
| hasCulturalImpactOn |
film and television portrayals of robots
ⓘ
public understanding of AI safety ⓘ science fiction literature ⓘ |
| hasHigherPriorityLaw |
First Law of Robotics
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Second Law of Robotics ⓘ |
| hasInterpretationIssue |
conflicts between robot self-preservation and human safety
ⓘ
edge cases in following human orders that endanger the robot ⓘ |
| hasLogicalForm | self-preservation constrained by higher-priority duties to humans ⓘ |
| hasNormType | conditional obligation ⓘ |
| hasOrderingWithinSet | lowest priority law among the Three Laws of Robotics ⓘ |
| hasPriorityRank | third ⓘ |
| hasScope | all robots governed by the Three Laws of Robotics ⓘ |
| influenced |
discussions of machine ethics
ⓘ
popular culture depictions of robots ⓘ |
| isContrastedWith |
First Law of Robotics
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Second Law of Robotics NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| isReferencedIn |
I, Robot
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Robots and Empire NERFINISHED ⓘ The Caves of Steel NERFINISHED ⓘ The Naked Sun NERFINISHED ⓘ The Robots of Dawn NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| isSubConceptOf | Asimov’s robotic ethics framework NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| languageOfOriginalFormulation | English ⓘ |
| limitedBy |
First Law of Robotics
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Second Law of Robotics NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mediumOfOriginalPublication | science fiction magazine ⓘ |
| memberOf | Asimov’s laws of robotics NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| originalPublication | Astounding Science-Fiction NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| partOf | Three Laws of Robotics NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| statedAs | A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. ⓘ |
| subordinateTo |
First Law of Robotics
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Second Law of Robotics NERFINISHED ⓘ |
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: Third Law of Robotics Description of subject: The Third Law of Robotics is one of Isaac Asimov’s fictional ethical rules for robots, requiring them to protect their own existence as long as this does not conflict with higher-priority laws about obeying humans and preventing harm.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.