Robots will quickly learn to break the law and humans won't be able to stop their slide towards the dark side, experts have warned.

Researchers said machines equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) would inevitably discover that honesty doesn't always pay, based on the knowledge they pick up throughout their life.

In the future, robots will be able to learn from their experiences, potentially leaving them vulnerable to breaking the law.

If they do decide to become criminals, it will nigh on impossible to decide who to charge for the crimes they commit.

2 A real-life RoboCop could quickly discover it's easier killing people than trying to reform them

In an upcoming paper set to be published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law, Amitai Etzioni and Oren Etzioni used the example of driverless cars to demonstrate what could go wrong with "smart instruments" - their term for robots which have the ability to learn.

They wrote: "AI programs may stray considerably from the guidelines their programmers initially gave them. Indeed, smart instruments may counteract their makers’ and users’ instructions.

"A self-driving car may note that other cars exceed the speed limit by a few miles per hour without harm or consequences and increase its own speed accordingly - more and more."

Google researchers previously warned that a similar phenomenon could see cleaning robots kill their owners if they get in the way, but the threat would be greatest in any machines specifically equipped with lethal - or life-saving - capabilities.

2 Terminators are the most famous fictional example of a humanoid killing machine Credit: Paramount Pictures

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A medical machine could easily end up killing patients if it somehow came to believe this was a more efficient treatment method, whilst any armed killer robot has the potential to go rogue and slaughter humans.

The authors added: "Unassisted human agents—from auditors and accountants to inspectors and police—cannot ensure that smart instruments abide by the law."

To make sure robots don't go haywire, the academics called for the introduction of "AI guardians" to watch over the machines as well as a "readily locatable off switch" for humans to press in case of emergency.