History of Artificial Intelligence: Complete Beginner Guide

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a rich history that dates back to the 1950s. What started as a theoretical concept has now become a revolutionary technology that transforms every industry. This complete tutorial will walk you through the fascinating journey of AI from its origins to the present day and beyond.

It was not 1880 when a great scientist came up with this term - Rome wasn't built in a day, and so is AI. The field of AI research was actually founded at a workshop held on the campus of Dartmouth College during the summer of 1956.

History of Artificial Intelligence

The first patent for the invention of the telephone happened in 1876, but AI was introduced at a much later stage. In true terms, the field of AI research was founded at a workshop held on the campus of Dartmouth College during the summer of 1956.

At that time, it was predicted that a machine as intelligent as a human being would exist in no more than a generation, and they were given millions of dollars to make this vision come true.

1950 - The Time When It All Started

This concept has been around for decades, but until 1950, people were unaware of the term. John McCarthy, who is known as the founder of Artificial Intelligence, introduced the term 'Artificial Intelligence' in the year 1955.

McCarthy, along with Alan Turing, Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon, and Marvin Minsky, is known as the founding fathers of AI. Alan Turing suggested that if humans use available information, as well as reason, to solve problems and make decisions - then why can't it be done with the help of machines?

1974 - Computers Flourished!

Gradually with time, the wave of computers started. With time, they became faster, more affordable, and able to store more information. The best part was that they could think abstractly, able to self-recognize and achieved Natural Language Processing.

1980 - The Year of AI

In 1980, AI research fired back up with an expansion of funds and algorithmic tools. With deep learning techniques, the computer learned with the user experience.

2000s - Landed to the Landmark

After all the failed attempts, the technology was successfully established, but until the 2000s, the landmark goals were achieved. At that time, AI thrived despite a lack of government funds and public attention.

In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue computer beat a world chess champion. That was a big moment in AI history. The idea of smart machines began long ago, and this victory proved that machines could outperform humans in specific domains.

Facts About AI Growth

We know that technology is evolving day by day and AI is reaching new heights. Even the research is growing constantly and continues to grow. In the last five years, AI research has grown by 12.9% annually worldwide.

Present Condition of AI

We all might be aware of the present situation and what value AI holds in our lives. AI collects and organizes large amounts of information to make insights and guesses that are beyond human capabilities of manual processing.

With its increasing organizational efficiencies, the likelihood of mistakes and detected irregular patterns is reduced. For spam or fraud warnings, or real-time alerts to businesses about suspicious activity, a lot has been safeguarded already.

Example: "Training" the machines to handle customer support calls and replacing many jobs in that way. Cost reduction has helped businesses increase their share of profits.

Is Future in Safe Hands or Not?

If AI is the future, then there is absolutely no doubt. Starting from healthcare, education, e-commerce to water power, electricity, and assembly lines, everything is automated.

There is a big shift in the way we live, work, and relate to one another due to the adoption of cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, and the Internet of Systems.

With Self Aware Systems, human-like intelligence has been developed. With Artificial Superintelligence and AI algorithms, machines are capable of outperforming the smartest humans in every single domain.

Future of Artificial Intelligence

We all know what the future is, but there is a bit of uncertainty about how it will be presented and what changes it will do to the generations. Will it have a positive impact or will there be some negative repercussions?

Until now, there have been some Artificial Intelligence systems that were specialists, e.g., AlphaGo (Zero), that mastered Go and were able to outperform human Grandmaster players. Superintelligence takes Artificial Intelligence to the next stage.

Superintelligence refers to a smarter than human platform that can outperform a human in any intellectual task. The question of when there will be AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and when there will be superintelligence is difficult to answer.

Nick Bostrom, who is an AI researcher at Oxford University, evaluates this question in a paper. You must have heard of the warnings given by Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates. The predictions are negative, but researchers continue to explore what the future holds.