Beginnings of Artificial Intelligence
Interestingly enough, the roots of Artificial Intelligence can be traced as far back as ancient times. Greek mythology told stories of mechanical devices and artifacts of varying levels of intelligence, whether authentic or perceived. For example, the myth of Hephaestus included the idea of intelligent robots.
Scientific research in the field of Artificial Intelligence had no credited founder. It was in the mid to late 1940’s, after the Second World War, that recognized work on intelligent machines was undertaken simultaneously by a number of independent scholars. However, many consider Alan Turing to be the pioneer. This English mathematician gave a lecture on the topic in 1947 and published his seminal paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence in 1950. In the article, Turing discussed factors for assessing the intelligence of machines and introduced his “Turing Test” as a method of operational testing. He may also have been the first to suggest that the future of Artificial Intelligence research relied more on computer programming than on building machines.
The phrase “Artificial Intelligence” was coined by John McCarthy in 1956. Its initial documented usage was during the Darthmouth Conference, where, for the first time, Artificial Intelligence was the sole topic of discussion. It was later in the same year that the first running Artificial Intelligence program, Logic Theorist, was demonstrated by its authors Allen Newell, J.C. Shaw and Herbert Simon.
Web Resources On Beginnings of Artificial Intelligence
American Association for Artificial Intelligence
Book Resources On Beginnings of Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart J. Russel and Peter Norvig
Gödel, Escher, Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
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