AI THROUGH THE AGES
A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence
The end of the year is a time for reflection, so we thought we should rewind the clock on AI and give ya’ll a little history lesson.
Enjoy this look back on how it all got started through to where we are today!
Humble beginnings
A group of visionaries at Dartmouth College, UK, seriously discussed machines mimicking human intelligence in 1956.
This meeting is now seen as the birth of artificial intelligence.
Yet, it wasn't until a decade later, in 1966, that John McCarthy would christen this field "artificial intelligence" because, let's face it, "computers mimicking human brains" just doesn’t roll off the tongue.
ChatGPT’s ancestorial beginnings
Around the same time, MIT rolled out ELIZA, the first-ever chatbot, which relied on pattern matching to simulate intelligent conversation.
It acted as a “therapist”. Back then, a computer just saying "Hello" was groundbreaking, so don’t expect much… but you can still try the ELIZA program here!
The 70s and 80s were all about AI being applied in new fields. Stanford's MYCIN played doctor, diagnosing bacterial infections, while Carnegie Mellon taught cars to drive themselves. 40 years later, we still aren’t there (yet!)
Chess lights the way
In the '90s, IBM's Deep Blue beat chess champion Garry Kasparov, sending shockwaves around the world.
The idea of a computer being competent in Chess was envisioned in the epic 2001: A Space Odyssey from 1968 - it really looked like we were seeing the future unfold as predicted.
Jump to 2011, and IBM's Watson takes the Jeopardy! crown, showing AI is an effective gamer.
In 2017, Google’s AlphaGo program officially beat the world Go champion, making headlines around the world.
2020s usher in the AI era
Towards the end of the teenies, deep learning took off - paving the way for the incredible advances we’ve seen in recent years.
This was AI on steroids, suddenly able to recognise faces, understand speech, and even dream up new art. The AI we know and love.
GPT-2 came along in 2019, followed by GPT-3 in 2020. AI chatbots weren’t yet mainstream, but computer boffins around the world were starting to take notice.
With ChatGPT’s wide release in November 2022 (yes, it was only two years ago!), the floodgates opened.
Now, we’re spoiled for choice with advanced chatbots, image generation and more.
Looking forward, AI video looks set to take charge in 2025, with Sora now open publically.