text: **In fiction**
  
  Thought-capable artificial beings have appeared as 
  storytelling devices since antiquity,[399] and have been a 
  persistent theme in science fiction.[400] 
  
  A common trope in these works began with Mary Shelley's 
  *Frankenstein*, where a human creation becomes a threat to 
  its masters. This includes such works as Arthur C. Clarke's 
  and Stanley Kubrick's*2001: A Space Odyssey*(both 1968), 
  with HAL 9000, the murderous computer in charge of the 
  *Discovery One*spaceship, as well as*The Terminator*(1984) 
  and*The Matrix*(1999). In contrast, the rare loyal robots 
  such as Gort from*The Day the Earth Stood Still*(1951) and 
  Bishop from*Aliens*(1986) are less prominent in popular culture.[401] 
  
  The word "robot" itself was coined by Karel 
  Čapek in his 1921 play*R.U.R.*, the title 
  standing for "Rossum's Universal Robots". 
  
  Isaac Asimov introduced the Three Laws of Robotics in many stories, most notably with the "Multivac" 
  super-intelligent computer. Asimov's laws are often brought up during lay discussions of machine 
  ethics;[402] while almost all artificial intelligence researchers are familiar with Asimov's laws through 
  popular culture, they generally consider the laws useless for many reasons, one of which is their 
  ambiguity.[403] 