The concept of artificial intelligence is much older than you might think. The principle of automata, human form machine, was already present in Antiquity.
In Greek mythology, for example, the bronze giant Talos is the protector of the island of Crete.
Much later in the Middle Ages, some alchemists believed they could endow materials with thoughts. This was the case of the alchemist Geber, with his Takwin.
But it was in the 1700s that the first real automata appeared. These human-shaped machines could perform certain tasks by themselves, such as drawing or writing poems. However, they lacked the ability to learn.
