In the Iliad, Hephaestus is assisted by artificial golden maidens endowed with capacities associated with living persons.
The ancient fantasy is already recognizably humanoid:
Can the made thing become sufficiently like its maker?
One of the most persistent fantasies is delegation.
The artificial being carries, assists, manufactures, obeys.
labor → delegated labor → autonomous labor
The machine performs what we cannot, will not, or no longer need to do ourselves.
A machine need not imitate the whole human.
It may instead extend a capacity.
lever → force
vehicle → movement
writing → memory
computer → calculation
artificial agent → cognition?