The phenomenon that we call artificial intelligence is developing very rapidly and is applied in almost every aspect of our lives. It exists not only in transport, where we are able to use autonomous cars, but also in banking, by improving banking processes, in education to individualize the teaching process, or in medicine, where it helps to diagnose diseases much faster. Algorithms equipped with artificial intelligence are also used in practice by the biggest technology companies – Apple or Google and most people in the world already use smartphones equipped with assistants capable of performing voice commands. The well-known social network Facebook has one of the largest laboratories for AI research – Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) – and uses the technology created there to observe the actions of users and make them easier to use the network (e.g. using automatic tagging of images). In 2017, FAIR created robots which started to communicate with each other in a language that humans do not understand. Seeing this level of language complexity and inability to understand it, scientists were forced to stop the experiment. AI technologies are also used for face recognition and are already in use in China. This technology can help to catch criminals, find missing children, but also recognize emotions. Chatbots are also used on a large scale – you can see how their function on airline websites, shops, but also on hotlines. SI is also used in the military – intelligent tanks are already existed and autonomous weapons are being developed. We don’t know what the current technological level is, because very often the armies don’t reveal their inventions and the things they work on.
The history of artificial intelligence began much earlier than with the invention of the first computers. Its origins can be traced back to the time of Aristotle (348 BC – 322 BC), the famous philosopher of ancient Greece, who created formal logic, which is a scientific discipline about ways to clearly capturing thoughts, determining the rules of correct reasoning and justifying claims. Logic, mathematics and theory of computation were the basis of theoretical computer science. The achievements of logic were used today to build the first computer capable of logical thinking.
The development of artificial intelligence was accelerated in the 20th century thanks to Alan Turing (1912-1954), known as the father of the AI. He was a mathematician, a precursor of computer science, as well as a war hero. During World War II, he became famous for creating a machine – Turing’s bomb – which helped to decipher the Third Reich’s messages recorded with the help of a constantly improved encryption machine – the Enigma, whose code was used to transmit information to the armed forces. In 1939 Turing created a machine that was able to decode the Enigma, thus giving rise to a theory of data processing. The scientist also presented a scheme of the first computer. The computer operated on the basis of a rotating head, which read data from a tape, which was a carrier of specific data and thus performed simple operations on the values recorded on the tape. Alan Turing was a visionary and pioneer of work on artificial intelligence. He predicted the enormous potential of computers and was aware that machines would become similar to people. This led him to create the test, currently called – the Turing test, which was designed to determine whether a machine exhibited an intelligence comparable to human beings. It is worth mentioning that only recently, in 2014, the computer passed this test by cheating with people and pretending to be a 13-year-old boy. The experiment was organized in London by the University of Reading. The task was that human judges had a chat conversation and were to decide whether there was a man or a machine on the other side. The program Eugene Goostman convinced 33% of the judges that he was human.
An important event in the history of AI is also the Dartmouth Summer Research Project – conference held in Dartmouth in 1956. There were 11 people: John McCourthy – called AI’s father, Marvin Minsky – co-founder of the AI laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nathaniel Rochester – the IBM 701 contructor – the first large scale electronic computer, Claude Schanon – creator of the communication network, known for applying mathematical logic to the design and construction of computers, Oliver Selfridge – who deals with neural network issues, Herbert Simon – Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Allen Newell, founder of “AI LAB” at Carnegie Mellon University. At the conference, one of its members – John McCarthy – proposed to name the phenomenon of constructing machines whose operation could be said to be similar to human manifestations of intelligence – artificial intelligence.
The development of the AI has accelerated even further and in 1966 was presented the ELIZA program, which pretend to be a psychoanalyst and was written by professor of MIT – Joseph Weinezbaum. It used natural language processing. ELIZA is considered to be the first chatbot in the history of computer science (even though the term appeared in 1994 and was proposed by Michael Mauldin). ELIZA recognized words – keys and provided answers from previously programmed ones.
Another important achievement was the creation of the Shakey robot in 1969. The first robot, capable of perceiving and understanding the surrounding environment. It was able to move small objects and used “computer vision”.
This period of AI development was followed by the “winter” of artificial intelligence. Investors started to withdraw from projects because they expected faster and better results. The problem was that the memory and operating powers of computers were too small.
It took about 30 years and winter was over. In the 1990s, the computing power was increased and computer was able to perform more complex operations. As a result, the AI became more popular and more and more resources were allocated to its development. In 1997, the IBM DeepBlue computer defeated chess champion Kasparov and then in 2015, DeepMind’s AlphaGo program defeated champion Lee Sedol in GO.
In 2004, the first DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous car competition was organized, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an American government agency. And since 2018, in some US states (e.g. California), cars have been allowed to travel on the roads and take their passengers.
More and more research centres dealing with artificial intelligence are now being established. In the 1950s, the world’s first AI laboratory was created at Carnegie Mellon University, and the first Artificial Intelligence research centre in Poland was opened in Łódź at the Faculty of Management of the University of Lodz.
The history of artificial intelligence is happening in front of us. The technology sector is currently developing most rapidly, and the new research centres offering more and more innovative solutions. Scientists try to predicting when the AI will reach the human level. It is already changing our world completely, but it is predicted to outperform humans in all tasks in 45 years and automate all human work in 120 years1. This process cannot be stopped, but the complexity of the technology, and the enormous impact it has on our lives, makes it necessary to have it under control.
[1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf
Agata Konieczna
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