The notion of Deep Learning arrived in the 80’s, where we witnessed the birth of the first neural networks. As a sub-category of Artificial Intelligence, we wanted to go back in time and discover the major steps in the evolution of this powerful technology and the history of Artificial Intelligence.

The history of Artificial Intelligence

Year 50: several milestones reached 

1956: Key moment in AI history

1958

1959

Turing’s work (Turing Machine): Alan Turing, mathematician, with the realization of his famous Turing test, which evaluates the capacity of a machine to maintain a human conversation
Shannon (chess game) – simultaneously developed by the University of Manchester

John Mc Carthy, Newell, Samuel, Simon and Minski, Dartmouth University: gives its name to Artificial Intelligence. The goal of this technology: to model human intelligence.

McCarty, at MIT: creation of the LISP language, specialized in Artificial Intelligence programming

The researcher and computer scientist A. Samuel mentions for the first time the notion of « machine learning ».

We realize that it is necessary to give all the necessary information to the machine so that it can « understand » its environment. Thus, during the project of cognitive architecture of classical artificial intelligence, CYC, researchers had to teach it basic social conditions, that all humans know, such as « if you cut a piece of butter in two, you get two pieces of butter, but if you cut a table in two, you don’t get two tables. This is the beginning of Machine Learning.

Progrès de l'Intelligence artificielle

1964

1967

1971

1975 : « IA Winter »

Year 90: Moore’s Law

1997: Deep Blue is created

Year 2000: Entering the digital age

Creation of ELIZA, a computer program developed by MIT, ancestor of the chatbot as we know it today.
Development of the first chess program capable of defeating average players by Grenblatt, researcher at MIT
SHRDLU robot development – dialogue and Q&A between AI and human

Research in AI is slowing down. The cause: the lack of technical means of the time which does not allow to realize models and algorithms powerful enough to reach the expected results.

It allows AI to be used in areas not previously exploited by the technology.

Created by IBM, the AI beat Garry Kasparov, who was six times world chess champion

The democratization of computers, the arrival of smartphones and other technologies allow AI research and applications to develop and reach more and more sectors

Artificial Intelligence: where are we today?

2010

2014

  • Development of new Artificial Intelligence processes: machine learning and Deep Learning.
  • Data is at the heart of these issues
  • The biggest companies are gradually opening their research centers (e.g. Facebook with FAIR directed by Yann Le Cun, as well as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple…)
   
AlphaGo, developed by DeepMing and bought by Google: an AI beats the best players at the game of Go

Today, artificial intelligences are used in many industries and have many applications. AI is a subject that raises many debates, especially regarding the risks related to the exploitation of this technology.