Editing Artificial intelligence (section)

== In fiction ==
{{Main|Artificial intelligence in fiction}}
[[File:Capek play.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The word "robot" itself was coined by [[Karel Čapek]] in his 1921 play ''[[R.U.R.]]'', the title standing for "Rossum's Universal Robots".]]

Thought-capable artificial beings have appeared as storytelling devices since antiquity,<ref name="AI in myth">AI in myth: {{Harvtxt|McCorduck|2004|pp=4–5}}</ref> and have been a persistent theme in [[science fiction]].{{Sfnp|McCorduck|2004|pp=340–400}}

A common [[Trope (literature)|trope]] in these works began with [[Mary Shelley]]'s ''[[Frankenstein]]'', where a human creation becomes a threat to its masters. This includes such works as [[2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)|Arthur C. Clarke's]] and [[2001: A Space Odyssey|Stanley Kubrick's]] ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (both 1968), with [[HAL 9000]], the murderous computer in charge of the ''[[Discovery One]]'' spaceship, as well as ''[[The Terminator]]'' (1984) and ''[[The Matrix]]'' (1999). In contrast, the rare loyal robots such as Gort from ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' (1951) and Bishop from ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'' (1986) are less prominent in popular culture.{{Sfnp|Buttazzo|2001}}

[[Isaac Asimov]] introduced the [[Three Laws of Robotics]] in many stories, most notably with the "[[Multivac]]" super-intelligent computer. Asimov's laws are often brought up during lay discussions of machine ethics;{{Sfnp|Anderson|2008}} while almost all artificial intelligence researchers are familiar with Asimov's laws through popular culture, they generally consider the laws useless for many reasons, one of which is their ambiguity.{{Sfnp|McCauley|2007}}

Several works use AI to force us to confront the fundamental question of what makes us human, showing us artificial beings that have [[sentience|the ability to feel]], and thus to suffer. This appears in [[Karel Čapek]]'s ''[[R.U.R.]]'', the films ''[[A.I. Artificial Intelligence]]'' and ''[[Ex Machina (film)|Ex Machina]]'', as well as the novel ''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]'', by [[Philip K. Dick]]. Dick considers the idea that our understanding of human subjectivity is altered by technology created with artificial intelligence.{{Sfnp|Galvan|1997}}