Benedict Cumberbatch plays computer pioneer Alan Turing in the Oscar-nominated film "The Imitation Game." The "game" he speaks of has come to be known as the "Turing Test" for artificial intelligence, or A.I., which has long been a science-fiction staple. Now, it is no longer fiction.

Last summer, for the first time, a computer passed the Turing Test. Scientists are excited, but some people worry about where this all could lead.

Some are already putting these machines to practical use. When professor Manuela Veloso has a guest at her office, she doesn't greet them herself. She sends a robot.

"Hello, I'm here to take Anthony Mason to room 7002," the robot said to CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason. "Please press done when I can go."

More precisely, it's a CoBot, or collaborative robot.

Because the robot is without arms, it needs help pushing the elevator button. But inside the computer science building at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, it knows exactly where it's going.

"Hello, I have brought Anthony Mason from room 4405. Please press done when I can leave," the robot said to Veloso.

Veloso and her students first began using the CoBots in 2010. In her building alone, the robot has gone more than 1,000 kilometers.

Four CoBots now roll through the halls. Each navigates on its own computing location and course by using onboard cameras and the detailed maps with which it is programmed.

To send the robot somewhere, you simply hit "schedule task," and the CoBot will ask how it can assist. If you stand in front of it, it will courteously say "please excuse me" until you move.

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How artificial intelligence may change our lives