Contents
- 1 The History of AI in 10 Key Moments
- 2 Introduction
- 3 1. 1950 – Alan Turing’s “Imitation Game”
- 4 2. 1956 – The Dartmouth Conference
- 5 3. 1966 – ELIZA: The First Chatbot
- 6 4. 1980 – Rise of Expert Systems
- 7 5. 1997 – Deep Blue Defeats Garry Kasparov
- 8 6. 2002 – AI Enters Homes: The Roomba
- 9 7. 2011 – IBM Watson Wins Jeopardy!
The History of AI in 10 Key Moments
Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone from science fiction to science fact. What started as a dream in the mid-20th century has become one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century. This article highlights 10 key moments in the history of AI that helped shape the world we know today.
1. 1950 – Alan Turing’s “Imitation Game”
Alan Turing proposed a test to determine whether a machine could exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. This “Turing Test” laid the foundation for thinking about machine intelligence.
2. 1956 – The Dartmouth Conference
This conference, organized by John McCarthy and others, marked the birth of AI as a field. It was here that the term “Artificial Intelligence” was officially coined.
3. 1966 – ELIZA: The First Chatbot
Joseph Weizenbaum created ELIZA, a program that could simulate conversation by mimicking a Rogerian psychotherapist. It was a breakthrough in natural language processing.
4. 1980 – Rise of Expert Systems
In the 1980s, expert systems like XCON were developed to solve complex problems by mimicking the decision-making ability of human experts, gaining popularity in industries like healthcare and manufacturing.
5. 1997 – Deep Blue Defeats Garry Kasparov
IBM’s Deep Blue became the first computer to defeat a reigning world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. This landmark event proved AI’s potential in logic-based games and decision-making.
6. 2002 – AI Enters Homes: The Roomba
The Roomba robot vacuum brought simple AI into households, showcasing how autonomous machines could operate in real-world environments with minimal human control.
7. 2011 – IBM Watson Wins Jeopardy!
Watson amazed the world by defeating two human champions on the quiz show *Jeopardy!*, demonstrating natural language understanding and
