The History of AI
A roadmap of our efforts to make machines think
Since the seminal Dartmouth Conference in 1956, AI has advanced in waves of ambition and failure. This lens traces the field from its origins in symbolic logic and early optimism, through the long winters of unmet promises. Only recently have we witnessed the statistical turn of machine and deep learning revolutions that are reshaping the modern era. I wanted to create this map of how we got here so we might better see what comes next.
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Origin Point

  • COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE

  • A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence

  • Ray Solomonoff and the Dartmouth Summer Research Project in Artificial Intelligence, 1956


  • Symbolic Foundations (1950-1970)

  • PROGRAMS WITH COMMON SENSE

  • Perceptrons [MIT Open Access Textbook]

  • SHRDLU: Nigel Ward, University of Tokyo, Japan


  • Reality Check (1970-1990)

  • KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING

  • MYCIN: A KNOWLEDGE-BASED COMPUTER PROGRAM APPLIED TO INFECTIOUS DISEASES