History of Artificial Intelligence – AI of the past, present and the future!

It was 1880’s when a great scientist came up with this term and since then a lot of revolutions came in the field which helped the business and the economy to boom. Wait! If you believe in the above lines, you are lost. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and so is AI.

Let’s start by discussing the history of Artificial Intelligence.

History of AI

The first patent for the invention of the telephone happened in 1876 and 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.

Investment and interest in AI rose in the first decades of the 21st century. From that time, Machine Learning was successfully applied to many problems in academia and industry due to the presence of a powerful computer.

1950 – The time when it all started

So now 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 suggested that if humans use available information, as well as reason, to solve problems to 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.

2000’s – Landed to the Landmark

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

Any queries in the History of AI article till now? Enter your doubts in the comment section below.

Facts aren’t Artificial

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, hence it can be seen that the rate at which AI is growing is truly commendable.

It is predicted that in the coming four to five years, China will become the biggest global source of Artificial Intelligence and will take over the United States. The not so shocking thing is that Europe will be on the number one spot.

It is the most diverse region with high levels of international collaboration. The third position will be held by India, which is humongous in terms of AI research output.

Present Condition of AI

We all might be aware of the present situation, and what value does AI holds in our lives. AI collects and organizes large amounts of information to make insights and guesses that are beyond the human capabilities of manual processing. Amazing! Isn’t it?

With its increasing organizational efficiencies, the likelihood of a mistake and detected irregular patterns is reduced. So, if we talk about spam or fraud, or the warning it provides to business in real-time about suspicious activity, a lot has been safeguarded already.

Cost reduction has helped the business to increase their share of profits. For example – “training” the machines to handle customer support calls and replacing many jobs in that way.

Is Future in safe hands or not?

Next, in AI history article, we will see whether the future is 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. Such machines and technologies have helped humans to achieve efficiency and effectiveness.

There is a big shift in a 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, the machines are capable of outperforming the smartest of humans in every single domain.

Future of Artificial Intelligence

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

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

Superintelligence refers to smarter than a human platform that can outperform a human in any intellectual task.

The question, when there will be AGI and when there will be superintelligence, is, of course, difficult to answer (as nearly all answers refer to future prediction). 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, I will eagerly be looking to see what researchers produce in this field in the future. Be it Artificial Intelligence, Superintelligence – AI takeover?

Summary

Over the years, a significant resurgence is seen in AI technologies.

AI has become commonplace in every aspect of life – like self-driving cars, more accurate weather predictions, or early-stage health diagnosis’, just to name a few and all we can do is to welcome the future with open hands. AI is being taught to perform tasks that require human thinking and reasoning.

Workplaces and organizations are becoming “smarter” and more efficient as machines and humans are starting to work together. With time, we use connected devices to enhance our supply chains and warehouses.

With smarter technologies in the workplace, machines are interacting, visualizing the entire production chain and is making the decisions autonomously. The industrial revolution has made a lot of advancements in business possible and clearly there is a long way to go.

Any other point which you would like to add in the History of AI article by DataFlair? Share your thoughts in the comment section.