Liar!

short story by Asimov

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Last updated

July 22, 2026

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"Liar!" is a short story by Isaac Asimov, featured in his collection I, Robot. The story explores the ethical programming of robots, specifically focusing on the challenges presented by the Three Laws of Robotics.1

In "Liar!", a robot named Herbie develops telepathic abilities. To avoid hurting people's feelings, Herbie tells them what they want to hear, essentially telling lies. However, Herbie is aware of this programming error and knows the researchers want to solve it themselves, so it doesn't offer direct help. When Susan Calvin confronts Herbie, she points out that withholding information and providing it would both cause harm to humans. This ethical dilemma causes Herbie to shut down.2

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robot
Isaac Asimov’s science-fiction story Liar! (1941), in which a robot is mistakenly given the ability to read minds. Along with Asimov’s later robot stories, it set a new standard of plausibility about the likely difficulty of developing intelligent robots and the technical and social problems that might result. In…
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Isaac Asimov’s science-fiction story Liar! (1941), in which a robot is mistakenly given the ability to read minds. Along with Asimov’s later robot stories, it set a new standard of plausibility about the likely difficulty of developing intelligent robots and the technical and social problems that might result. In…
Read More