Ancient myths helped shape how we build and understand AI

Human ideas about artificial life and thinking machines long predate computers. Greek myths describe golden workers created by Hephaestus, while Jewish folklore tells of the Golem, an artificial being made to follow its creator’s commands.

In Myth-Made Machines: The Stories Behind Artificial Intelligence, Dave Bradley and Kelly Vero argue that mythology, literature, film and television have shaped both public expectations of AI and some of the technology built around it. They point to jokes about Skynet and HAL 9000 after ChatGPT launched in 2022 as examples of how older stories frame new systems.

The authors also identify early fictional links to computing. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, published in the 18th century, includes the Engine of Lagado, which rearranges words in search of useful knowledge. The modern term “artificial intelligence” was coined in the 1950s by computer scientist John McCarthy.

Bradley says today’s engineers grew up with works by Isaac Asimov and William Gibson, among others. A 2022 study found that 93 per cent of UK astronomers enjoyed science fiction and 69 per cent said it influenced their career decisions. The authors also cite NASA-related work inspired by HAL 9000 and Google DeepMind’s 2024 “Robot Constitution” as examples of fiction influencing real-world AI thinking.

They say the fast-changing state of AI in 2026 was another reason to focus their book on older stories.