Work Text:
Title: "Artificial Intelligence"
Author: Kat Lee
Rating: G/K
Summary: Like a good teacher, Hank tries to earn his class' attention.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
"Doctor McCoy." Hank smiled as a hand shot up and nodded, signaling his student to proceed. "When was the first robot made?"
"In the late 1940s," Hank began, but another hand rose.
"But could they walk and talk everything?"
The tip of the Beast's fangs showed through his furry, blue lips as Hank's smile broadened. "Ah, so you are not inquiring as to when the first basic robot was created. What your inquisitive minds wish to know is when the first cybernetic being that could rival human kind was made."
"Yeah, the first AI!"
"No, my dear. AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is not the creations themselves but rather refers to the intelligence of machines such as Danger, before she became quite as sentient as she is now, or the technology and branch of computer science that actually studies and develops these intelligent machines and software. Indeed, for the creations that you reference, the historical timeline is a bit more of a gallimaufry. You see, we have writings depicting such machines dating all the way back to the ancient Greeks. There was the Talos of Crete, Hephaestus' bronze robot, and Pygmalion's Galatea."
Grumbles whispered through Hank's class, setting some of his blue fur on end with irritation. His students' previously excited and expectant faces began to fall. Eyes glazed over, and Hank realized he was quickly losing his class.
Having already began to pace while he was discussing the matter at hand, Hank turned one more time and faced his class with a devious smile. This time, his fangs did come out to sparkle, and his yellow eyes twinkled. "Of course, those were only fictional writings, but the matter is still one for some debate. After all, if you ask Mama McCoy, she'd tell you that her bouncing, baby, blue boy created the first artificial intelligent robot to serve as his invisible play mate when he was little." Some of his smarter students caught on to his joke and began to laugh; their laughter lulled the other kids back to alert.
Hank smiled and continued his lecture, trying his best to choose words for simple minds but still, in the long run, failing. He had been granted the gift of gab from the first time he'd stepped away from that play mate he'd created, but sadly, when it came to communications with some other mutants, that gift of gab was always in fifty million dollar words. He sighed inwardly but then smiled again as he thought to himself that he'd call Reed Richards after work. The thought of discussion with another intellectual mind kept Hank smiling for the rest of the day.
The End