In 1920, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) introduced the word “robot” into the English language.

 In 2016, engineers introduce increasingly intelligent machines into existence all the time. 

Humans can still distinguish what is AI and what is not, but what if robots became so advanced that they could convince us they weren’t robots at all? Is that even possible?

At what point would a robot qualify for the rights we consider inalienable as people? What would personhood even mean when equal or greater beings could be created artificially and at will?

R.U.R began asking these questions almost 100 years ago, though we’ve never been closer to needing the answers as we are today.