Press release: Robots in disguise?

Journalists sitting and writing in notepads

10 December 2025

Robots in disguise? Gresham College to explore the history of automata and the complexities of our relationship with them 

Gresham Professor of IT, Victoria Baines, to give talk on Tuesday, 7 January 2025, online and in central London 

The rise of robots and artificial intelligence is dominating this decade, with scientists developing machines that can walk and jump like a human being. It seems that after centuries of development, automata are finally growing up.  

But has it always been this way? As we head into the final year of the first quarter of the 21st century, London’s Gresham College is looking back to look ahead.  

Gresham Professor of IT, Victoria Baines, will give a lecture entitled Who’s Afraid of Robots? on Tuesday, 7 January. It takes place from 6pm at the college’s base in Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn.  

She will trace the development of automata from the 8th century BCE to the present day and beyond, taking into account the hoaxes of our forebears and that the modern creations being developed today may not be what our ancestors had in mind.  

Professor Baines said: “Artificial Intelligence is the newest robot kid on the block, but we have imagined and designed intelligent machines for millennia.  

“From Homer’s Odyssey to the science fiction of the 20th century and the technological progress of the 21st machines that serve, mimic, and even terrify us teach us what it is to be human. As we become more digital, and machines become ever smarter, the ride is about to get much wilder.” 

One of the first known automated devices was a karakuri in Japan. Mentioned in 7th century writings, it was said to be a chariot in the reign of Empress Kogyoku. The technology continued to be developed with clockwork dolls serving tea by the 19th century.  

Other automatons included the Digesting Duck, a 19th century grain eating bird that managed to prove the old adage what goes in must come out. However, the science gave way to a parlour trick for its magic to work.  

Perhaps the most famous was the chess player hoax of The Mechanical Turk, which toured the world and prevented Napoleon from cheating at chess. It turned to be an elaborate hoax with a chessmaster concealed inside the mechanism.  

Scientists did manage to develop automations, with The Silver Swan catching virtual fish from the early 18th century, and Tipu’s Tiger recreating the mammal eating human prey.  

Later, Mephisto managed to compete at chess, powered by electromechanics, while Elektro debuted in 1937, and had a vocabulary of around 700 words. He could also smoke and blow balloons.  

Basic they may be, but they paved the way for modern robots that are developing at a rapid pace.  

Come along to Gresham College and let Professor Baines revisit the past, look ahead to what is next, and argue that the relationship between humans and machines has always been complex, and that we still can’t decide whether we really want them to be like us. 

Gresham College is London’s oldest higher education institution. Founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, it has been delivering free public lectures for over 427 years from a lineage of leading professors and experts in their field who have included Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Iannis Xenakis and Sir Roger Penrose. 

Entry is free, and the lecture will be streamed live on YouTube. This is also free. 

In-person places can be booked online via Gresham College’s website: www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/afraid-robots 

ENDS

Notes to Editors  

Images available on request

For more information about this story or to arrange an interview with a Gresham Professor please contact: Phil Creighton press@gresham.ac.uk   

About Gresham College  
Gresham College has been providing free, educational lectures - at the university level - since 1597 when Sir Thomas Gresham founded the college to bring Renaissance Learning to Londoners. Our history includes some of the luminaries of the scientific revolution including Robert Hooke and Sir Christopher Wren and connects us to the founding of the Royal Society.  

Today we carry on Sir Thomas's vision. The College aims to stimulate intellectual curiosity and to champion academic rigour, professional expertise and freedom of expression. www.gresham.ac.uk  

Gresham College is a registered charity number 1039962 and relies on donations to help us encourage people's love of learning for many years to come. For more details or to make a gift, visit our website.   

About the Pre-History of IT lecture series at Gresham College 
Computers have been around for a lot longer than we realise, but not always as electrically powered machines.  

In her series of lectures, Gresham Professor Victoria Baines will explore the machines you never knew existed, some spanning hundreds of years.  

Highlights will include a look at how we owe Wi-Fi and GPS to a Hollywood actress, the earliest robots, and how present-day data thieves are loved by some and vilified by others.  

Her first lecture in the series explored the link between an ancient shipwreck and northern England’s textile mills and their surprising role in developing computers.