What Isaac Asimov Reveals About Living with A.I.

In the spring of 1940, Isaac Asimov, who had just turned twenty, published a short story titled “Strange Playfellow.” It was about an artificially intelligent machine named Robbie that acts as a companion for Gloria, a young girl. Asimov was not the first to explore such technology. In Karel Čapek’s play “R.U.R.,” which débuted in 1921 and introduced the term “robot,” artificial men overthrow humanity, and in Edmond Hamilton’s 1926 short story “The Metal Giants” machines heartlessly smash buildings to rubble. But Asimov’s piece struck a different tone. Robbie never turns against his creators or threatens his owners. The drama is psychological, centering on how Gloria’s mom feels about her daughter’s relationship with Robbie. “I won’t have my daughter entrusted to a machine—and I don’t care how clever it is,” she says. “It has no soul.” Robbie is sent back to the factory, devastating Gloria.