Intro to AI: History and Development

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer science field focused on creating systems that mimic human intelligence and problem-solving.
• AI systems process data and learn from past experiences to improve future performance without human intervention for bug fixes or process enhancements.

History of AI

• The concept of AI dates back to ancient times, with philosophers pondering life and death and inventors creating automatons.
• Automatons are self-operating mechanical devices; the word itself comes from the Greek, meaning "acting of one's own will".
• One of the earliest automatons was a mechanical pigeon made around 400 BCE.
• Leonardo da Vinci created one of the most famous automatons around 1495.
• Modern AI study is focused primarily on 20th century advancements

Groundwork for AI: 1900-1950

• Early 1900s media often featured artificial humans, leading scientists to question the possibility of creating an artificial brain.
• Early versions of robots, mostly steam-powered, could perform simple actions like making facial expressions and walking.
• 1921: Karel Čapek's play "Rossum’s Universal Robots" introduced the word "robot" for artificial people.
• 1929: Makoto Nishimura built Gakutensoku, the first Japanese robot.
• 1949: Edmund Callis Berkley's book "Giant Brains, or Machines that Think" drew parallels between computers and human brains.

Birth of AI: 1950-1956

• Alan Turing's work led to the Turing Test as a measure of computer intelligence.
• The term "artificial intelligence" was coined and popularized.
• 1950: Alan Turing published "Computer Machinery and Intelligence," introducing the Imitation Game.
• 1952: Arthur Samuel developed a checkers program that independently learned to play.
• 1955: John McCarthy organized a Dartmouth workshop on "artificial intelligence," leading to the term's widespread use.

AI Maturation: 1957-1979

• This period saw growth and struggles in AI research with new programming languages, books, and films popularizing AI.
• The 1970s saw improvements like the first anthropomorphic robot and autonomous vehicle, but also reduced U.S. government funding.
• 1958: John McCarthy created LISP (List Processing), a programming language for AI research that is still used today.
• 1959: Arthur Samuel coined the term "machine learning."
• 1961: The first industrial robot, Unimate, began working at General Motors.
• 1965: Edward Feigenbaum and Joshua Lederberg created the first "expert system".
• 1966: Joseph Weizenbaum created ELIZA, the first chatbot, using Natural Language Processing (NLP).
• 1968: Alexey Ivakhnenko proposed "Group Method of Data Handling" which led to modern Deep Learning.
• 1973: James Lighthill's report led to reduced AI research funding from the British government.
• 1979: James L. Adams created the Stanford Cart, an early example of an autonomous vehicle.
• 1979: The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) was founded.

AI Boom: 1980-1987

• The 1980s were a time of rapid growth and interest in AI, driven by research breakthroughs and government funding.
• Deep Learning and Expert Systems became popular, enabling computers to learn and make independent decisions.
• 1980: The first AAAI conference was held at Stanford.
• 1980: The first expert system, XCON, was commercially released.
• 1981: The Japanese government invested $850 million in the Fifth Generation Computer project.
• 1984: The AAAI warned of an upcoming "AI Winter."
• 1985: AARON, an autonomous drawing program, was demonstrated at the AAAI conference.
• 1986: Ernst Dickmanns and his team created the first driverless car.
• 1987: Alacrity, the first strategy managerial advisory system, was commercially launched.

AI Winter: 1987-1993

• This period describes a decline in interest and funding for AI, leading to fewer research breakthroughs.
• Private investors and governments reduced funding due to high costs and low returns.
• The AI Winter resulted from setbacks in the machine market and expert systems, including the end of the Fifth Generation project.
• 1987: The market for specialized LISP-based hardware collapsed.
• 1988: Rollo Carpenter invented the Jabberwacky chatbot.

AI Agents: 1993-2011

• The early 90s saw strides forward including the first AI system to beat a world chess champion.
• AI entered everyday life with inventions like the Roomba and speech recognition software.
• Increased interest led to more research funding and further progress.
• 1997: IBM's Deep Blue beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov.
• 1997: Windows released speech recognition software.
• 2000: Cynthia Breazeal developed Kismet, a robot that simulated human emotions.
• 2002: The first Roomba was released.
• 2003: NASA landed rovers on Mars that navigated autonomously.
• 2006: Companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Netflix began using AI in their algorithms.
• 2010: Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 Kinect, a gaming hardware that tracked body movement.
• 2011: IBM's Watson won Jeopardy against former champions.
• 2011: Apple released Siri, the first popular virtual assistant.

Artificial General Intelligence: 2012-Present

• This era has seen a rise in AI tools like virtual assistants and search engines, along with the popularization of Deep Learning and Big Data.
• 2012: Google researchers trained a neural network to recognize cats using unlabeled images.
• 2015: Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and others signed an open letter calling for a ban on autonomous weapons.
• 2016: Hanson Robotics created Sophia, a humanoid robot known as the first "robot citizen."
• 2017: Facebook's AI chatbots developed their own language during negotiations.
• 2018: Alibaba's AI beat human intellect on a Stanford reading comprehension test.
• 2019: Google's AlphaStar reached Grandmaster level in StarCraft 2.
• 2020: OpenAI started beta testing GPT-3, a model that uses Deep Learning to create human-like content.
• 2021: OpenAI developed DALL-E, which can process images and generate captions.

What does the future hold?

• Future expectations include increased adoption of AI by businesses, workforce changes due to automation, more robotics, and autonomous vehicles.