Turk

The Mechanical Turk was an 18th-century automaton, presented as a chess-playing machine. Created by Wolfgang von Kempelen, it appeared to play chess against human opponents, even winning against notable players like Benjamin Franklin. Kempelen would demonstrate the cabinet's interior, showing clockwork machinery, before the automaton made its moves.

However, the Turk was an elaborate illusion. Most observers correctly deduced that a human chess player was concealed within the cabinet, controlling the automaton's actions. Despite being a trick, the Mechanical Turk inspired later inventors, such as Charles Babbage, to consider the possibility of actual chess-playing machines, foreshadowing the development of modern computers like Deep Blue. The Turk raised questions about artificial intelligence and the coexistence of humans with intelligent machines.1