How far back does AI go in science fiction?

[Guest my usernames always really suck]

I had thought 2001: A Space Odyssey was probably the first instance of the idea of a computer-emulated consciousness being implemented in a story that reached the public imagination in 1968.

 

And then I discovered an episode of The Outer Limits, Demon With A Glass Hand written by Harlan Ellison, written 4 years prior in 1964.

 

I'm not talking about robots in general -- the idea of robots has probably been around since literature of the 18th and 19th centuries. I'm curious specifically to the concept of AI being more specifically mentioned in the writing as being powered by a mechanical, electric computer. Is there a definitively-known "first"?

[Guest analogue wings]

Let me wiki that for you

 

Thinking machines and artificial beings appear in Greek myths, such as Talos of Crete, the golden robots of Hephaestus and Pygmalion's Galatea.[13]

[Guest Babar]

Metropolis ?

[takeshi]

Maybe, the 'I, Robot' short stories by Asimov?

[Guest my usernames always really suck]

Let me wiki that for you

 

Thinking machines and artificial beings appear in Greek myths, such as Talos of Crete, the golden robots of Hephaestus and Pygmalion's Galatea.[13]

 

Saw that.

 

It has nothing to do with computers and furthermore Greek myths had no relation to actual scientific and technological endeavors the way science fiction does.

 

[Tessier Ashpool]

Maybe, the 'I, Robot' short stories by Asimov?

 

I'd say that even if he didn't "invent" it all, Asimov's work went a long way to injecting the idea of AI into the public consciousness. I mean, he's sort of the Godfather of robot fiction:

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Asimov believed that his most enduring contributions would be his "Three Laws of Robotics" and the Foundation Series (see Yours, Isaac Asimov, p. 329). Furthermore, the Oxford English Dictionary credits his science fiction for introducing the words positronic (an entirely fictional technology), psychohistory (which is also used for a different study on historical motivations) and robotics into the English language. Asimov coined the term robotics without suspecting that it might be an original word; at the time, he believed it was simply the natural analogue of words such as mechanics and hydraulics, but for robots. Unlike his word psychohistory, the word robotics continues in mainstream technical use with Asimov's original definition. Star Trek: The Next Generation featured androids with "positronic brains" giving Asimov full credit for 'inventing' this fictional technology. His fictional writings for space and time are similar to the writings of Brian W Aldiss, Poul Anderson and Gregory Benford. He is considered one of few authors who have the potential to bring older teenagers in to the realm of adult fiction.