Evolution of AI: Innovations that Created History Since Decades

The evolution of AI has led to the creation of some of the most celebrated inventions of the centuries

The advent of artificial intelligence was like a new dawn for the tech industry. As we are standing at the inception of the fourth industrial revolution, we can witness the innovations and developments that have powered this revolution, and consider it safe to say that AI is at its core. Let's go through this timeline, and reassess the most transformative AI innovations, leading to the most revolutionary AI revolution.

• 1950: The Turing Test – The Turing test marked the inception of AI, when Alan Turing conducted a test to examine the machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour that is similar to, to indistinguishable from a human.
• 1956: Birth of the term 'AI'- The term AI was first coined at the Dartmouth Conference by American computer scientist John McCarthy. This was the first time AI was considered as an academic field. Also, the same year, Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon, and Cliff Shaw invented 'Logic Theorist'- the world's first AI program.
• 1961: Introducing Unimate– The year marked the emergence of Unimate, the world's first industrial robot that worked for General Motors, and undertook the job of transporting die castings from an assembly line and welding them on auto bodies, a dangerous job for humans.
• 1964: Emergence of Eliza– The year was struck with the advent of Eliza, an early NLP program invented at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. The program yielded canned responses that made early users feel they were talking to someone who understood their input.
• 1972: WABOT 1- The first intelligent humanoid robot was developed in Japan, consisting of a limb-control system, a vision system, and a conversation system. It was the first fun-scale anthropomorphic robot.
• 1974-1980: AI Winter- It was a quiet period for AI research and development. Over this period of time, funding for AI research faced several active and inactive cycles.
• 1997: Deep Blue– Deep Blue was a chess-playing expert system, run on a unique purpose-built IBM supercomputer. It was the first computer to win a match against a world champion with regular time controls.
• 2002: Roomba: World's first mass-produced autonomous vacuum cleaner, from iRobot Corporation that could navigate and clean homes on its own. They possess sensors that enable them to detect obstacles and dirt spots on the floor.
• 2010: WATSON– IBM launched its first supercomputer that combines artificial intelligence and other technologies, enabling organizations to predict future outcomes, automate complex processes, and optimize employees' time.
• 2011: Siri– Apple launched its revolutionary chatbot and virtual assistant that is a part of all Apple electronic products. It can support a wide range of user commands and was the first of its kind back in 2011.
• 2016: Sophia- Hanson Robotics created a humanoid robot named Sophia who is also known as the first 'robot citizen'. Sophia's similarity to an actual human being is what sets her apart from previous humanoid robots.
• 2018: IBM's Project Debater- It was the first AI system developed by IBM to debate humans on complex topics. The goal was to enable humans to make more persuasive arguments and make well-informed decisions.
• 2018-2020- AI inventions in Gastroenterology– Within this time period, there have been several innovations in the AI domain related to healthcare services, especially in gastroenterology to enhance accuracy in treatments.
• 2021: Ethical AI- Ethical AI became an important topic in 2021 for business leaders who were looking to get the most out of AI solutions and keep the customer happy simultaneously.

As we are stepping into 2022, we can expect more AI innovations leading to even more revolutionary changes in the industrial and societal landscape.