Artificial Intelligence: A Beginner's Guide

The reason behind science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics: When Asimov first began publishing in the late 1930s, "one of the stock plots of science fiction was ... robots were created and destroyed their creator. Knowledge has its dangers, yes, but is the response to be a retreat from knowledge? Or is knowledge to be used as itself a barrier to the dangers it brings?" So the robots in his stories would not "turn stupidly on his creator for no purpose but to demonstrate, for one more weary time, the crime and punishment of Faust."--Isaac Asimov (1964). "Introduction". The Rest of the Robots. Doubleday, p.10.

Asimov first mentioned the Three Laws of Robotics in his 1942 science fiction short story, "Runaround":

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 the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence, except where such protection would conflict with the First or Second Law.

Source: Encyclopedia Brittanica Online.