A Rare 1897 Film Discovered in an Old Trunk in Michigan Features the First On-Screen Appearance of a Robot

A Rare 1897 Film Discovered in an Old Trunk in Michigan Features the First On-Screen Appearance of a Robot

Filmmaker Georges Méliès employed some of his signature special effects techniques to create comedy in "Gugusse and the Automaton"

A French Magician Saw the Robot Uprising Coming in 1897 — and Silicon Valley Still Isn’t Listening

More than a century before OpenAI’s boardroom drama, before Elon Musk warned about summoning the demon, before Congress fumbled through hearings where senators couldn’t explain how Facebook makes money — a French stage magician named Georges Méliès made a short film about a mechanical man turning on its creator. The year was 1897. The film was called Gugusse et l’Automate. And its message was as blunt as a sledgehammer: build something smarter t…