It’s everywhere — artificial intelligence. On the phone. In the car. On the television. Call it Siri. Alexa. ChatGPT. Or Roomba. But it’s here to stay.

The question is, what are the ethics of using it? This debate ensues on many of the lists where I subscribe. Authors angered at Meta for training its AI on their novels and nonfiction books without permission — more than 7 million altogether — then debate the ethics of using ChatGPT or other AI programs to edit manuscripts, create book covers or record audiobooks. After all, AI also “stole” from artists, book narrators and others to acquire those skills.

The Authors Guild, the nation’s oldest and largest professional organization for writers that has protected authors’ rights since 1912, has created a Human Authored project where writers can certify their book is created by a human and add a logo to that effect. I registered my latest novel, “Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence,” and added the logo to the front of the book.

Years from now, people will likely look back on this era and shake their heads as creatives grapple with seeing their livelihoods, vocations, and paychecks consumed by computers that write better, draw better, and speak better. It’ll be like the Jetsons cartoon characters looking back at the Flintstones … and we’re the Flintstones.

Last week at the St. Helens Club in Chehalis, President Nancy Leventon gave an hour-long lecture on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics as part of the year’s theme on Scientific Discoveries Through the Ages. I’ll share a snippet of her presentation and observations of my own.

The idea of having robots do work for humans stems back centuries. Greek philosopher Aristotle, who lived from 384 to 322 BC, imagined robots whose work could replace that of apprentices and slaves. Artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci drew a humanoid automaton in the 15th century.

On Wednesday, Leventon walked us through iterations of robots through the centuries, including The Turk, a 1770 chess machine large enough for a person to sit inside and move the pieces; Victorian era automaton dolls that could play musical instruments, walk, or move arms and legs; and Televox, a large humanoid robot constructed in 1927 by Roy Wensley. Debuting at the 1939 World’s Fair was Elektro, a 7-foot-tall steel robot that could walk, speak 700 words, blow up balloons, smoke cigarettes and move his arms and head, alongside his robot dog, Sparko. In the late 1940s, William Grey Walter built two tortoise-like robots — Elmer and Elsie — and in the 1950s came the first industrial robot, the Unimate, with a hydraulic arm to perform repetitive tasks such as those used in car manufacturing.

Robots became popular Japanese comic book characters, Leventon said, such as Astro Boy, an animated TV series that premiered on Fuji TV in 1963.

“The introduction of transistors into computers in the mid-1950s reduced size and increased performance,” Leventon said.

The Rancho Arm developed in 1963 by researchers at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in California helped disabled patients. In the early 1970s, Professor Ichiro Kato led a team that developed the WABOT-1, which could communicate, measure distances and directions, and walk and grip items. In the early 1970s, the Stanford Research Institute built Shakey, the first mobile robot using TV cameras, lasers, and bump sensors that was capable of reasoning.

Students in the Bronx in the 1970s worked with Leachim, a 6-foot-tall robot that could synthesize human speech, talk and interact with students. The SCARA robot developed at Yamanashi University in Japan with a four-axis robotic arm could pick up parks and place them in specific locations, perfect for assembly line work.

After the 1962 debut of Rosie the Robot in the Jetsons cartoon, the late 1960s and 1970s featured robots on televisions and the big screen in the original Star Trek (M-5 and Nomad), 2001: A Space Odyssey (HAL), and Star Wars movies (R2D2 and C-3PO). The ultimate robots appeared onscreen in the 1980s with Arnold Schwarzenegger as cybernetic assassin The Terminator and the casting of Brent Spiner as Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In the early 1990s, Stanford University developed the CyberKnife, which can deliver radiosurgery to treat tumors and other cancers. Honda created a P1 humanoid robot in 1993 and P2 in 1996. And the Mars Sojourner Rover reached Mars in July 1997 and toured the Red Planet for 95 days. People can even buy robotic dogs and cats today. And even self-driving cars.

And Sophia, a computerized female robot activated in February 2016 by Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong was granted full citizenship in Saudi Arabia in 2017, the first robot given legal personhood status.

“It is controversial, considering how few rights are given to Saudi human women,” Leventon said.

It also raises questions of whether Sophia can vote or marry or drive (which Saudi women couldn’t do until 2018) and whether a deliberate shutdown would be considered murder.

“The growth of robotic capability during the decade happened in tandem with the centralization of economic power into the hands of large multinational tech companies,” Leventon said, prompting concerns of data privacy as more robots enter consumers’ homes.

“Many ethicists raised concerns that robots operating complex systems may not have the moral or ethical safeguards necessary to ensure public safety,” she said.

Advancement in robotics, semiconductors, and nanobots — microscopic robots — while revolutionary in medicine, health, and industry raise questions about how society will deal with the ethics of using robots.

“The field of AI research was founded in a workshop held on the campus of Dartmouth College in 1956,” Leventon said. “Attendees of the workshop became the leaders of AI research for decades. Many of them predicted that machines as intelligent as humans would exist within a generation.”

It took longer than a generation, but we’re in a time when artificially created computer networks provide instant — although not always accurate  —answers to questions. Researchers design computers to converse, translate languages, interpret pictures, and reason like humans. In 1996, Deep Blue, a chess-playing super computer, defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a milestone in development of artificial intelligence.

“The people who say they are the most worried about AI are among the most determined to create it and enjoy its riches,” Leventon said, as they contend only they can keep AI from endangering humanity.

The Nobel Prize in 2024 went to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence or brain-inspired artificial neural networks.

Dario Amodei, cofounder and CEO of the AI firm Anthropic, graced the June 2024 cover of Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people of 2025.

“His heart also plays a profound role in how he architects the future: he is kind, and that matters given the role he’s playing in our world,” the magazine wrote. “Amodei doesn’t just build advanced AI; he designs guardrails for it.”

In a recent article, he noted AI’s “dual potential for liberation and disruption,” Time wrote.

“He’s become my new hero,” Leventon said, sharing his company’s mission statement. “We can only hope that the vision of Dario Amodei will reign in the future of AI. It should be developed for the betterment of mankind, rather than for its destructive capabilities or for huge financial gain.”

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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at [email protected].