A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, might sound like something from a science fiction film, but it's very real and already a big part of our daily lives. From voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, to social media algorithms and face recognition on your phone, AI is working behind the scenes to make life smarter and faster.

But where did AI come from? Let's take a look at how it all began...

1950s-1960s: The Birth of AI

The idea of intelligent machines started to become serious science in the 1950s. - In 1950, British mathematician Alan Turing asked the question: "Can machines think?" He even came up with a test—now called the Turing Test—to see if a computer could talk so well that a person couldn't tell it wasn't human. - In 1956, a group of scientists met at a workshop at Dartmouth College in the USA. This is where the term "Artificial Intelligence" was first used. - Around this time, the Perceptron was invented—an early model of how a computer could "learn" by itself using simple maths.

1970s-1980s: AI Winter

Not everything went smoothly. In the 1970s and 80s, AI struggled to live up to the big promises made by scientists. Computers weren't fast or powerful enough, and progress was slow. This led to what is now called the "AI Winter"—a time when funding and interest in AI dropped.

But not all hope was lost. In the late 1980s, researchers developed a technique called backpropagation, which helped computers learn from mistakes—just like we do. This set the stage for future breakthroughs.

1990s-2000s: AI Starts to Prove Itself

In 1997, a huge moment happened: a supercomputer called Deep Blue, built by IBM, beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov. This was the first time a computer defeated a human at something so complex.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, AI started appearing in homes and workplaces—from simple chatbots to speech-recognition software.

2010s: The AI Boom

The 2010s were a game-changer for AI. Thanks to more powerful computers and a lot more data, AI made huge leaps forward.

- In 2011, IBM's Watson won the American quiz show Jeopardy!, showing off its ability to understand and answer complex questions. 
- In 2012, AI beat humans in recognising images during a famous competition called ImageNet. This was possible because of deep learning, which works a bit like the human brain.
- By 2014, AI assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa were becoming common. - In 2016, AlphaGo, an AI built by DeepMind, beat a world champion at the ancient game of Go.

2020s-Today: AI All Around Us

Today, AI is almost everywhere.

- It powers recommendations on YouTube, Netflix, and TikTok.
- It helps doctors diagnose diseases.
- It creates AI-generated art, music, and writing.
- It drives self-driving cars and works in robotics.

At the same time, people are now discussing the ethics of AI—how to make sure it's used safely and fairly. Governments and organisations are working on rules to guide how AI is used in the future.

Want to try AI yourself? Tools like ChatGPT and DALL·E let you chat with an AI or create images from text!

AI has come a long way in just a few decades—from a big idea to a major part of our everyday lives.

While we're still learning what AI can (and should) do, one thing is certain: the future will be shaped by smart technology. And that future might just be yours to build.