How some people were selling advanced robotics and AI systems forty years ago.In 1979, as a young journalist, I was commissioned to take a trip around the world, visiting all the important Artificial Intelligence labs. I was with my TV science documentary colleague Volker Arzt, and we were doing a general research project for GEO magazine and German TV. On the first full day in New York, November 8th, we visited computer scientist Ken Thompson at Bell Labs in New Jersey. That was . Quite hilarious.Pure audacity: the fake robot scam was originally published in Becoming Human: Artificial Intelligence Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.