A laughing robot and the possibilities of AI | Letter

Yvonne Whalley remembers Alan Ayckbourn's play in which a robot develops at least one human trait

Your report (Scientists try to teach robot to laugh at the right time, 15 September) reminded me of Sir Alan Ayckbourn's 1998 play Comic Potential. Except that in the play, the robot did not need to be taught to laugh.

Set in the not too distant future, Comic Potential foresees TV soaps acted by AI robots. As the play opens, just such a TV programme - a hospital soap - is in progress. But in the studio where it is being recorded, the robots are malfunctioning and the action spirals into chaos.