The History of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the area of computer science focusing on creating machines that can engage on behaviours that humans consider intelligent. Alan Turing, which many considered as the Father of Computer Science had a great impact in Artificial Intelligence.
The ability to create intelligent machines has intrigued humans since ancient times and today with the advent of the computer and 50 years of research into AI programming techniques, the dream of smart machines is becoming a reality. Researchers are creating systems which can mimic human thought, understand speech, beat the best human chess player, and countless other feats never before possible.
The history of AI is quiet interesting, from 1966 through to 1977, the Artificial Intelligence Centre at SRI International (then Stanford Research Institute) conducted research on a mobile robot system nicknamed “Shakey.”

After Shakey people started to use their imaginations more and started to be more interested in Artificial Intelligence and computer science. Artificial Intelligence is more present in everyday life than one might think. Though AI technology lies hidden behind many of today’s advancements in technology & science, it is often more visible when it’s incorporated into areas such as games and sport. Games are becoming more interesting and more complex. Because of Artificial Intelligence machines are getting bigger and smarter for example, satellite navigation systems that many of us have in our cars today solve complex problems in a reasonable amount of time. AI was used in the past in big machines such as Shakey and The Stanford Cart to small machines like navigation systems and furbys. For those of you who don’t know what a furby is it is a small toy made for children in 1998 by Tiger Electronics. It was a toy that started off very basic when it came out of the box (and for many children it was a dream come true for them on December 25th 1998 if there was a furby under the Christmas tree) that just kept learning due to its artificial intelligence. This tiny toy had sensors and effectors which enabled it to “sense” information from the environment and permit a response to the environment.
AI is not just in small toys/games like Furby and Pac Man but it is also becoming popular in the US as online security device. There is a machine with a camera that goes around the house and you can track it online if you are away to make sure your house is secure. This is a typical example of how AI tries to mimic the human brain. I am sure as time passes and we look back on history books in years to come there will be more and more AI used in our every day lives by everyone all over the world.


While researching this topic I found some interesting websites:

http://www.ai.sri.com/software_list/

http://www.ai.sri.com/software_list/

http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01158/toys.html