Not exactly a household name, but as [IEEE Spectrum] points out, he invented a chess automaton in 1920 that would foreshadow the next century’s obsession with computers playing chess.

Invented by Leonardo Torres in 1920, the Torres calculating machine is a machine that solves essential addition, subtraction, ...

the world wondered about the sentience of a chess-playing automaton called the Mechanical Turk. In the late 18th century, Wolfgang von Kempelen was an advisor of the Austrian-Hungary court.

To all appearances, it was an automaton capable of playing chess against any human opponent. The elaborate design included doors that Kempelen would open to reveal a complex array of gears and ...

A spectator would approach and sit opposite the automaton to play a game of Chess. The automaton would then come to life, picking up the pieces and making moves. To add further surprise to that ...

Before the term artificial intelligence was coined in 1955, there were glimmers of AI’s potential in folklore, fiction, and the early engineering feats of the 19th and early 20th centuries.