Three Laws of Robotics

The Three Laws of Robotics are conditions to which artificial intelligences are subject to:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

UNSC "Smart" AI's are able to ignore at least the first law at will while fully functional, and given their military usage are often required to ignore this law, though at lower-capacity states their adherence is compulsory. Whether "Dumb" AI's are able to ignore these laws is unknown.

The laws were created by science fiction author Isaac Asimov, with the first law first mentioned in the 1941 story Liar!. Fleshed out more extensively in later series, these laws have also been adopted by other science fiction authors, albeit sometimes in an altered form, and has been considered a good model to base future artificial intelligence research on.