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A play about the revolt of workers – not machinery – gave us the word 'robot'

By Emma Bowman
Published September 11, 2025 at 4:03 PM CDT

Melania Trump used the word during a recent White House task force meeting to refer to AI. But "robot," was first introduced in a 1920 Czech play in which human workers were the robots.

Copyright 2025 NPR
Emma Bowman
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
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