🌐 The Origins of Artificial Intelligence — Where It All Began

Brief History of Artifical Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) might feel like a phenomenon of the 21st century, but its roots go back much further — to an era when computers were the size of rooms and “digital” was still a new word.

📜 How the Term “Artificial Intelligence” Was Born

The phrase “Artificial Intelligence” was officially coined in 1956 by computer scientist John McCarthy. He introduced it for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, a small academic gathering that became the starting point of AI as a research field. McCarthy’s definition was straightforward yet visionary: the science and engineering of making machines behave in ways that would be called “intelligent” if done by humans.

👥 The Pioneers Who Lit the Spark

While McCarthy named AI, the foundation was built by several brilliant minds:

• Alan Turing — Proposed the idea that machines could “think” and created the famous Turing Test in 1950 to measure machine intelligence.

• Marvin Minsky — Co-founder of the MIT AI Lab and a strong advocate for AI research.

• Herbert Simon & Allen Newell — Created the Logic Theorist in 1956, considered one of the first AI programs.

These pioneers laid the groundwork for the field, long before AI could become part of our everyday lives.

💻 The Original Computing Power Behind AI

Early AI wasn’t powered by lightning-fast processors or GPUs. Instead, researchers worked on mainframe computers like the IBM 704 and IBM 701, which had processing power that would seem microscopic compared to today’s smartphones.

• Memory was measured in kilobytes, not gigabytes.
• Programs were written on punch cards, and every run could take minutes or hours.

Despite the limitations, those early machines carried out the first reasoning algorithms, proving that the concept of machine intelligence was possible.

💡 From its birth in a small conference room to powering self-driving cars and chatbots today, AI has traveled a long, incredible journey — and we’re just getting started.