The history of Artificial Intelligence: History of AI in Brief
The history of artificial intelligence
The history of artificial intelligence (AI) began in antiquity, with myths, stories, and rumors of artificial beings endowed with intelligence or consciousness by master craftsmen. The study of logic and formal reasoning from antiquity to the present led directly to the invention of the programmable digital computer in the 1940s, a machine based on abstract mathematical reasoning. This device and the ideas behind it inspired scientists to begin discussing the possibility of building an electronic brain.
The history of artificial intelligence began in 1943 with the publication of the article
“A Logical Calculus of Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity” by Warren McCullough and Walter Pitts.
In that work, the scientists presented the first mathematical model for the creation of a neural network.
The first neural network computer , Snarc, was created in 1950 by two Harvard students: Marvin Minsky and Dean Edmonds. That same year, Alan Turing published the Turing Test, which is still used today to assess AI.
In 1952, Arthur Samuel created a software capable of learning to play chess autonomously. The term artificial intelligence was first used at John McCarthy's Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence conference in 1956.
At this event, researchers presented the goals and vision of AI. Many consider this conference to be the true birth of artificial intelligence as we know it today.
In 1959, Arthur Samuel coined the term Machine Learning while working at IBM. John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky founded the MIT Artificial Intelligence Project. In 1963, John McCarthy also created the “AI Lab” at Stanford University.
In the following years, doubts began to loom over the field of AI. In 1966, the American ALPAC report highlighted the lack of progress in research into machine translation aimed at simultaneous translation of the Russian language in the context of the Cold War. Many projects funded by the American government were cancelled.
Similarly, in 1973, the British government published its “Lighthill” report highlighting the disappointments of AI research. Once again, research projects were curtailed by budget cuts. This period of doubt lasted until 1980, and is now referred to as the “ first AI winter .”
That winter ended with the creation of R1 (XCON) by Digital Equipment Corporations. This expert trading system is designed to configure orders for new computer systems, and it sparked a veritable investment boom that lasted for more than a decade.
Japan and the United States invested heavily in AI research. Companies spent more than $1 billion a year on expert systems, and the sector continued to grow.
Unfortunately, the market for Lisp machines collapsed in 1987 as cheaper alternatives became available. This was the “second AI winter .” Companies lost interest in expert systems. The US and Japanese governments abandoned their research projects and billions of dollars were spent for nothing.
Ten years later, in 1997, the history of AI was marked by a major event. IBM's Deep Blue AI defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov. For the first time, man was defeated by machine.
Ten years later, technological advances have allowed for the resurgence of artificial intelligence . In 2008, Google made great strides in voice recognition and launched the feature in its smartphone apps.
In 2012, Andrew Ng fed a neural network 10 million YouTube videos as a training dataset. Using deep learning, this neural network learned to recognize a cat without being taught what a cat is. This was the beginning of a new era for deep learning.
In 2016, AI again won over humans, with Google DeepMind's AlphaGo system beating Go champion Lee Sedol. Artificial intelligence has also conquered the gaming world, notably with DeepMind AlphaStar in Starcraft and OpenAI Five in Dota 2.
Today, companies from all sectors use Deep Learning and Machine Learning for countless applications. AI continues to advance and surprise with its performance. The dream of general artificial intelligence is getting closer to reality.
