Jun 24, 2021
AI/ML Introduction: Episode #2: History of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is the most important development in computer science. It’s a broad and deep field, with many subfields, each of which has its own challenges and successes.
In the previous blog, I gave an overview on what AI is? in a very simple terms.
Interested in knowing about AI History and Evolution, then this is the blog for you.
In this blog post series, I’ll explore the history and evolution of AI — from the first time we tried to make computers think all the way up to now and future.
The goal is for you to gain a better understanding of how Artificial Intelligence came about, what it can do today, and how research on AI continues to shape our future as humans interact more with intelligent machines every day.
Lets now have a look at the history and evolution of AI.
1950, This is where it all started.
A computer scientist posed a question: “Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?
In 1956: It became “Artificial Intelligence”
John McCarthy, an American Computer Scientist — who is widely described as the father of AI — coined the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ as part of his proposal for the 1956 Dartmouth Conference
1959: saw the first lab being established
MIT establishes the first AI Lab in 1959. Since then, it has merged with the MIT Lab for Computer Science to become: CSAIL and remains one of the world’s most important labs
In1975: Saw the First powerful use-case of AI
Stanford University developed MYCIN in 1975 which helped Physicians to identify the bacterial infection such as Meningitis
1987: AI Interest drops
A second drop of interest and investments hits AI.
This was due to an increased cost of computing power and a lack of public knowledge about what AI could do.
It was also around this time where some started to worry about whether or not machines will eventually take over our society
1997: saw the first computer to beat a chess champion
IBM’s chess-playing computer beat the world chess champion in one game of chess in 1996, and then winning an entire match in 1997.
In 2002: Robots replaced humans
Amazon made the big decision of replacing human editors with basic AI systems in 2002 and arguably led the way in showing the business how AI could be utilised
2011: saw the use of Voice
In 2011, Apple introduced Siri to the world. Arguably the first (substantial) voice-based conversational interface, which catalysed the race towards the best voice assistant
2016: AI moved to the Next level capability
In 2016, Google’s AlphaGo AI machine beat the world champion of ‘Go’ — the world’s most difficult strategy game which has 1080 possible outcomes
2020 and Beyond
It is predicted that by 2024, AI will be integral, to every part of the business, resulting in 25% of the overall spend on AI Solutions
Conclusion
AI is an amazing technology that has the potential to shape our future.
However, it’s still important for us humans to understand how this powerful and intelligent tech could potentially affect our lives in coming years, as we interact with machines more than ever before.
If you want a better understanding of just what AI is capable of today or where research on AI will take us in the next few decades — or if you simply have any questions about artificial intelligence at all — let me know in the comments!
Hope you found it useful.
Thanks for reading.
