The word "robot" was created by a playwright rather than a scientist.

The term "robot" made its world debut in the science fiction play R.U.R., written by Karel Čapek in 1920 and first performed in Prague in 1921. While Karel is credited with popularizing the word, he later admitted that his brother, the painter and writer Josef Čapek, was the actual inventor of the term. Karel had originally intended to call the creatures "labori," but Josef suggested "roboti" instead.The word is rooted in the Old Church Slavonic word "robota," which refers to the forced labor of serfs. In the context of the play, these robots were not mechanical metal figures but rather biological entities grown in vats. They were designed to lack a soul and feelings so they could perform tireless manual labor for their human creators.The play was an immediate international success and was translated into thirty languages by 1923. Its English premiere took place at the Garrick Theatre in New York City in October 1922, produced by the Theatre Guild. This production is largely responsible for cementing the word "robot" into the English lexicon and the global consciousness.The influence of Čapek's work extends into modern science and philosophy. Isaac Asimov later expanded on these concepts by creating the "Three Laws of Robotics" in the 1940s. Today, the term has evolved from its literary origins to describe the complex mechanical and AI systems that define modern technology.