1.3 History and Evolution of AI

AI had a wild 70-year arc: big hype, two "AI winters" where funding crashed, then a massive comeback powered by data and GPUs.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

AI didn't appear out of nowhere in 2022. In 1950 Alan Turing asked "Can machines think?" and proposed the Turing Test. In 1956 the Dartmouth workshop officially kicked off AI as a field.

Then came the hype cycles. Researchers promised human-level AI within a generation, it didn't happen, and funding dried up - twice. These slumps (roughly the mid-1970s and late 1980s to early 90s) are called AI winters.

The glow-up started when three things lined up: tons of internet data, powerful graphics chips (GPUs) and better algorithms. Deep learning took off in 2012, AlphaGo beat a Go world champion in 2016, the Transformer architecture dropped in 2017, and ChatGPT made AI mainstream in late 2022.

Why it matters

AI history is a lesson in hype. Every era promised "human-level AI soon". Stay curious, but keep a little side-eye for big predictions.

Key takeaways

1950 Turing Test, 1956 AI becomes a field

Two AI winters when promises outran results

Data + GPUs + better algorithms = the modern boom