In order to analyze the advances of this technology, we must know how artificial intelligence was born. A journey that began with Alan Turing, that took off in the 90s, and we still do not know where it will take us.
We know a lot about the advances in AI and we talk about that it will be the protagonist technology in the coming years. However, how did we get here? To know where we are and where we are going, we must know where we come from. The next milestones will have a lot to do with how artificial intelligence was born, so we have to make a reflection and dismember the history of this revolutionary technology.
Alan Turing, protagonist of the origins
We are in the first steps of this technology, when the concept of AI did not exist but it was already theorized about ‘machines’ that could work alone. The true pioneer was Alan Turing who, in 1936, laid the first stone by publishing his famous article on the “Calculable Numbers”.
This article served to establish the theoretical foundations and can be considered the official origin of theoretical informatics. Here is born the concept of the ‘Turing Machine’, which formalized the concept of algorithm and turned out to be the precursor of digital computers.
Remember the famous Turing Test? This test, which determined whether a machine is intelligent or not, was born from a revolutionary article published by Alan Turing in 1950. Your article “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” he advocated the possibility of emulating human thought through computing.
The concept of artificial intelligence is born
Turing’s theories aside, we could say that artificial intelligence was born as a real concept in 1956. John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky and Claude Shannon, three leading scientists of the time, coined the term during the Darthmounth Conference like ” the science and ingenuity of making smart machines, especially smart calculation programs.”
These scientists pointed out that society would be surrounded by intelligent machines in less than ten years. The truth is that it was not so, and is that, this technology was developed timidly until the 90s, when it really begins the golden age of AI.
Starting in 1990, most large technology companies start making huge investments in this technology. What made you change your mind? The reason for this strong bet was that, at the gates of the digital world, companies realized that they needed improve the processing and analysis capacity of the huge amount of data that was coming.
IBM and its computer that challenged the human
The consecration of AI came in 1997, when IBM launched Deep Blue, a computer that was able to beat Gari Kasparovworld chess champion. This event was so important that it even gave rise to great films about the technological future and where, of course, artificial intelligence was one of the protagonists. In addition, it is during this decade that intelligent agents emerge, which would later give rise to the creation of sophisticated chatbots, or the virtual assistants that we know now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdns2fVUEeE
Later something similar would happen with Watson, another IBM computer that won the famous quiz ‘Jeopardy!’. “IBM Watson’s computer has emerged victorious from its duel against the human brain,” said the host of the American television program ABC.
These were years in which IBM and Microsoft invested huge amounts of money to lead innovation in this technological field. Now, when artificial intelligence has already been installed in our lives and replaces humans in various activities, the ethics of AI begin to be regulated, and all companies know the importance of this technology. Where will artificial intelligence take us?
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