These rules aren't like Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics." They don't offer a snappy, moral framework that will help us control murderous robots. Instead, they address the murky and diffuse problems that will affect society as we integrate AI into sectors like health care, education, and consumer technology.

So, for example, if an AI system diagnoses you with cancer sometime in the future, the EU's guidelines would want to make sure that a number of things take place: that the software wasn't biased by your race or gender, that it didn't override the objections of a human doctor, and that it gave the patient the option to have their diagnosis explained to them.

So, yes, these guidelines are about stopping AI from running amuck, but on the level of admin and bureaucracy, not Asimov-style murder mysteries.