We’ve been trying to chat with machines for centuries. See what came before AI

A new book traces the history of ‘smart’ devices, back to the 14th century: early divination circles, word looms, even robots that churned out film scripts.

We tend to think of AI in isolation, as this slightly menacing entity that has taken shape from the nuts and bolts of our algorithms and experiments in machine learning. But artificial intelligence is really part of a rather large family tree of “smart” machines, dating as far back as the 14th century.

All those years ago, an Arabic astrology wheel was built in an early attempt at automated chat. Then, in 17th-century Europe, a “mathematical cabinet” was built in

Screenwriter Wycliffe Hill with a poster for his 1931 creation, Plot Robot. (Courtesy Plot Genie)

The Plot Robot, 1931

This machine, built by Los Angeles screenwriter Wycliffe Hill, could produce a complete outline of a story in 20 minutes, its whirring gears drawing background, characters and dramatic situations from a series of tapes housed in its chassis.

The robot found no takers (it is unclear why, but expense may have been a factor; it is also possible that the stories weren’t very good). But it prompted Hill to write a book titled Plot Genie (1935), about a wheel that could be spun to point to seemingly random numbers, which could be referenced against a set of charts, to generate plot requisites (locale, character, the beloved, the problem, and so on).

As it turns out, Hill wasn’t a polymath or early technocrat. He was a scriptwriter who became fixated on decoding the intricacies of what makes a good plot, when his own screenplay was rejected. His aim was to take the effort and uncertainty out of writing.

There hasn’t yet been a magic wand created that can do that.