2. History & Evolution of AI

Getting Started

Timeline of AI

1943-1956: McCulloch-Pitts neural network model (1943), Turing Test (1950), Dartmouth Conference (1956) — AI is born
1956-1974: Early enthusiasm — Logic Theorist, GPS (General Problem Solver), LISP, ELIZA chatbot, Shakey the Robot
1974-1980 (First AI Winter): Funding cuts due to unmet expectations, limited computing power, combinatorial explosion
1980-1987: Expert systems boom (MYCIN, XCON), Japanese Fifth Generation project, LISP machines
1987-1993 (Second AI Winter): Expert systems limitations exposed, funding declines again
1993-2011: Deep Blue beats Kasparov (1997), statistical ML rises, Bayesian networks, support vector machines
2011-2020: Deep learning revolution — AlexNet (2012), AlphaGo (2016), GPT-1 (2018), transformers dominate
2020-Present: Large Language Models (GPT-3, GPT-4, Claude), generative AI, multimodal AI, AI agents

Key Milestones

1950 — Alan Turing publishes "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"
1956 — Dartmouth Conference coins "Artificial Intelligence"
1966 — ELIZA chatbot demonstrates NLP
1997 — IBM Deep Blue defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov
2011 — IBM Watson wins Jeopardy!
2012 — AlexNet wins ImageNet, deep learning takes off
2016 — AlphaGo defeats Go champion Lee Sedol
2022 — ChatGPT reaches 100M users in two months

AI Winters

The term "AI Winter" refers to periods of reduced funding and interest following hype cycles. Key lessons: avoid overpromising, set realistic expectations, focus on concrete results, and build incrementally.

Practice Task: Create a visual timeline of AI history with at least 10 key events. Research one milestone in detail and explain its significance. Write a short reflection on why AI Winters occurred and what current AI developers can learn from them.