Artificial Intelligence (AI): Definition, History, and Key Programs

Learn what artificial intelligence is, how it began, and which programs sparked the recent AI boom.

What is artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings, such as reasoning, learning, understanding speech, and recognizing faces. Modern AI systems are engineered systems that generate outputs like predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions for human-defined objectives.

Who coined the term "artificial intelligence" and when?

Computer scientist John McCarthy coined the term "artificial intelligence" in 1955 while writing a funding application for a summer research program at Dartmouth College. The field gained its name and formal mission at the Dartmouth workshop in 1956.

When did AI become a formal field of research?

AI was formally founded as a research discipline at a workshop held on the campus of Dartmouth College in 1956. At that workshop, Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon presented the Logic Theorist, which is considered the first AI program.

What is the Turing test?

In 1950, mathematician Alan Turing published "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," in which he proposed the Turing test: if a machine could carry on a conversation indistinguishable from one with a human, it would be reasonable to say the machine was thinking. The test was the first serious proposal in the philosophy of artificial intelligence.

Which AI programs helped spark the recent AI boom?

DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated the world champion Go player in 2015, OpenAI released the large language model GPT-3 in 2020, and ChatGPT launched on 30 November 2022. ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer software application in history, gaining over 100 million users in two months, and is widely seen as marking AI's breakout year.

What technology led to modern generative AI?

The transformer architecture, introduced in 2017, enabled the rapid scaling of large language models and the development of generative AI applications. This helped initiate the AI boom that produced systems like ChatGPT.

How much is invested in AI?

According to AI Impacts, about $50 billion annually was invested in AI in the United States around 2022. About 20% of new U.S. computer science PhD graduates specialized in AI that year, and around 800,000 AI-related job openings existed in 2022.

People also search for