--- title: MIT Creates World's First 'Psychopath' Robot description: Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have now created the world's first 'psychopath' robot, an AI algorithm nicknamed "Norman." canonical: https://time.com/5304762/psychopath-robot-reactions/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-07T18:02:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:30:01.447Z og:title: MIT Created the World's First 'Psychopath' Robot og:description: And people really aren't feeling it og:url: https://time.com/5304762/psychopath-robot-reactions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99e28edf14ab4ad6/6989328ce76ad21b35632391/psychopath-robot.jpg?branch=production&width=504&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 504 og:image:height: 284 og:image:alt: Artificial Intelligence og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: MIT Created the World's First 'Psychopath' Robot twitter:description: And people really aren't feeling it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99e28edf14ab4ad6/6989328ce76ad21b35632391/psychopath-robot.jpg?branch=production&width=504&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # MIT Created the World's First 'Psychopath' Robot and People Really Aren't Feeling It > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=284b5dc6-54d0-4081-82e1-a0eed045713c&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: MIT Scientists Engineer First-Ever 'Psychopath' Robot [Watch (HLS stream): MIT Scientists Engineer First-Ever 'Psychopath' Robot](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VjK5GUa5.m3u8) (1:04)  _Published 2018-06-08. Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have designed the first-ever “psychopath” robot._  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jun 7, 2018 6:02 PM UTC Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have designed the first-ever “psychopath” robot.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jun 7, 2018 6:02 PM UTC As if [Will Smith](http://time.com/5222769/will-smith-sophia-the-robot-online-dating/) didn’t make an entire movie warning us about the potential dangers of [artificial intelligence](http://time.com/5087385/why-you-shouldnt-be-afraid-of-artificial-intelligence/), scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now created the world’s first [‘psychopath’](http://norman-ai.mit.edu) robot. Researchers at the MIT media lab have trained an AI algorithm nicknamed [“Norman”](http://norman-ai.mit.edu/)—a reference to the character of [Norman Bates](http://time.com/3988925/supercut-super-villains/) in _Psycho_—to exhibit psychopathic tendencies by exposing it exclusively to gruesome and violent content from what they say is Reddit content page that is “dedicated to document and observe the disturbing reality of death.” Here’s what MIT has to say about the whole thing: --- > “” --- Fortunately, Norman’s only capability is image captioning, which means the most damage it can do is produce some pretty chilling Rorschach inkblot descriptions. But that didn’t stop people from freaking out over the development. > [](https://twitter.com/Kasik%5FKicks/status/1004685224616366080) > [](https://twitter.com/ColinJCarlson/status/1004568227622645760) > [](https://twitter.com/40ozToRanch/status/1004750921518100482) > [](https://twitter.com/th0tcouture/status/1004749484541251585) > [](https://twitter.com/jrbarrat/status/1004462352035704833) > [](https://twitter.com/BrandyLJensen/status/1004743935523262465) > [](https://twitter.com/gosttweets/status/1004728041711403009) > [](https://twitter.com/HeyMrBuckley/status/1004772523534237696) > [](https://twitter.com/Nibletdog/status/1004617729322565632) --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5304762/psychopath-robot-reactions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5304762/psychopath-robot-reactions/"},"headline":"MIT Created the World's First 'Psychopath' Robot and People Really Aren't Feeling It","datePublished":"2018-06-07T18:02:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T09:30:01.447Z","description":"The AI was exposed exclusively to gruesome Reddit content","url":"https://time.com/5304762/psychopath-robot-reactions/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech","Technology","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99e28edf14ab4ad6/6989328ce76ad21b35632391/psychopath-robot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99e28edf14ab4ad6/6989328ce76ad21b35632391/psychopath-robot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Artificial Intelligence","caption":"Artificial Intelligence","creditText":"monsitj/Getty Images/iStockphoto","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5304762/psychopath-robot-reactions/","name":"MIT Created the World's First 'Psychopath' Robot and People Really Aren't Feeling It"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"MIT Scientists Engineer First-Ever 'Psychopath' Robot","description":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have designed the first-ever “psychopath” robot.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VjK5GUa5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-06-08T13:10:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VjK5GUa5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5304762/psychopath-robot-reactions/","duration":"PT1M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5304762/psychopath-robot-reactions/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```