Alicia Washington
Mallory McKee
Cody Nelson
History of Artificial
Intelligence
Introduction
Evidence of Artificial Intelligence folklore can be traced
back to ancient Egypt, but with the development of the
electronic computer in 1941, the technology finally
became available to create machine intelligence. The
term artificial intelligence was first coined in 1956, at
the Dartmouth conference, and since then Artificial
Intelligence has expanded because of the theories and
principles developed by its dedicated researchers.
Through its short modern history, advancement in the
fields of AI have been slower than first estimated,
progress continues to be made. From its birth 5 decades
ago, there have been a variety of AI programs, and they
have impacted other technological advancements.
The Beginnings of A.I.
Although the computer provided the
technology necessary for AI, it was not until
the early 1950's that the link between human
intelligence and machines was really
observed. Norbert Wiener was one of the first
Americans to make observations on the
principle of feedback theory. The most familiar
example of feedback theory is the thermostat:
It controls the temperature of an environment
by gathering the actual temperature of the
house, comparing it to the desired
temperature, and responding by turning the
heat up or down. What was so important
about his research into feedback loops was
that Wiener theorized that all intelligent
behavior was the result of feedback
mechanisms. Mechanisms that could possibly
be simulated by machines. This discovery
influenced much of early development of AI.
Alan Turing
In 1950 Alan Turing published a landmark
paper in which he speculated about the
possibility of creating machines with true
intelligence. He noted that "intelligence" is
difficult to define and devised his famous
Turing Test. If a machine could carry on a
conversation (over a teletype) that was
indistinguishable from a conversation
with a human being, then the machine
could be called "intelligent." This
simplified version of the problem allowed
Turing to argue convincingly that a
"thinking machine" was at least plausible
and the paper answered all the most
common objections to the proposition.
The Turing Test was the first serious
proposal in the philosophy of artificial
intelligence.
Gaming in A.I History.
In 1951, using the Ferranti Mark I machine of
the University of Manchester, Christopher
Strachey wrote a checkers program and
Dietrich Prinz wrote one for chess. Arthur
Samuel's checkers program, developed in the
middle 50s and early 60s, eventually
achieved sufficient skill to challenge a world
champion. Game AI would continue to be
used as a measure of progress in AI
throughout its history.
Allen Newell & Herbert Simon
In late 1955, Newell and
Simon developed The Logic
Theorist, considered by many
to be the first AI program. The
program, representing each
problem as a tree model,
would attempt to solve it by
selecting the branch that
would most likely result in the
correct conclusion. The
impact that the logic theorist
made on both the public and
the field of AI has made it a
crucial stepping stone in
developing the AI field.
John McCarthy
In 1956 John McCarthy regarded as
the father of AI, organized a
conference to draw the talent and
expertise of others interested in
machine intelligence for a month of
brainstorming. He invited them to
Vermont for "The Dartmouth summer
research project on artificial
intelligence." From that point on,
because of McCarthy, the field would
be known as Artificial intelligence.
Although not a huge success, the
Dartmouth conference did bring
together the founders in AI, and
served to lay the groundwork for the
future of AI research.
Knowledge Expansion
In the seven years after the conference, AI began to pick up
momentum. Although the field was still undefined, ideas formed at the
conference were re-examined, and built upon. Centers for AI research
began forming at Carnegie Mellon and MIT, and new challenges were
faced: further research was placed upon creating systems that could
efficiently solve problems, by limiting the search, such as the Logic
Theorist. And second, making systems that could learn by themselves. In
1957, the first version of a new program The General Problem
Solver(GPS) was tested. The program developed by the same pair which
developed the Logic Theorist. The GPS was an extension of Wiener's
feedback principle, and was capable of solving a greater extent of
common sense problems.
Knowledge Expansion (Cont.)
A couple of years after the GPS, IBM contracted a
team to research artificial intelligence. While more
programs were being produced, McCarthy was busy
developing a major breakthrough in AI history. In
1958 McCarthy announced his new development; the
LISP language, which is still used today and is the
language of choice among most AI developers.
From Lab to Life
 No longer was the computer technology just part of a select few researchers in
laboratories. The personal computer made its debut along with many
technological magazines. Such foundations as the American Association for
Artificial Intelligence also started. There was also, with the demand for AI
development, a push for researchers to join private companies.
 Other fields of AI also made there way into the marketplace during the 1980's. One
in particular was the machine vision field. The work by Minsky and Marr were now
the foundation for the cameras and computers on assembly lines, performing
quality control. Although crude, these systems could distinguish differences shapes
in objects using black and white differences. By 1985 over a hundred companies
offered machine vision systems in the US, and sales totaled $80 million.
From Lab to Life (Cont.)
 The 1980's were not totally good for the AI industry. In 1986-87 the
demand in AI systems decreased, and the industry lost almost a half of a
billion dollars. Companies such as Teknowledge and Intellicorp together
lost more than $6 million, about a third of there total earnings. Another
disappointment was the so called "smart truck" financed by the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency. The projects goal was to develop a
robot that could perform many battlefield tasks. In 1989, due to project
setbacks and unlikely success, the Pentagon cut funding for the project.
 Despite these discouraging events, AI slowly recovered. New technology
in Japan was being developed. Fuzzy logic, first pioneered in the US has
the unique ability to make decisions under uncertain conditions. Also
neural networks were being reconsidered as possible ways of achieving
Artificial Intelligence. The 1980's introduced to its place in the corporate
marketplace, and showed the technology had real life uses, ensuring it
would be a key in the 21st century.
A.I. Put to Test
The military put AI based hardware to the test of war during Desert Storm.
AI-based technologies were used in missile systems, heads-up-displays, and
other advancements. AI has also made the transition to the home. With the
popularity of the AI computer growing, the interest of the public has also
grown. Applications for the Apple Macintosh and IBM compatible computer,
such as voice and character recognition have become available. Also AI
technology has made steadying camcorders simple using fuzzy logic. With a
greater demand for AI-related technology, new advancements are becoming
available. Inevitably Artificial Intelligence has, and will continue to affecting
our lives.
A.I. Timeline
Cartoon A.I.
AI and Hollywood Movies
• In today’s generation, Hollywood movies are
mostly about androids, humanoids, and
robots.
• Machines going out of control
• Replacing humanity
• World domination
Smart Car
Speech recognition
 Up-to-date information about historical
landmarks and points of interest on the
car’s rout.
 Lowest price gas stations close to the
current position of the car.
 Warns drivers of road hazards

• Smart Car
Robotics
• Robotics continue to evolve from manufacturing,
medicine and remote exploration to entertainment,
security and personal assistance.
• Robots may be one of the most well known examples of
Artificial Intelligence.
• Japan has announced that they will send the first
humanoid robots to the moon.
http://smart-machines.blogspot.com/
Robotics example
A.I. In Military
The U.S is spending as much 100
billion dollars to develop robots that
can aid or replace human soldiers on
the front line. These robots can
operate in combat zones with little
supervision.
 Flight simulations and virtual
environments help train over 500,000
Soldiers.

http://www.aaai.org/aitopics/pmwiki/pmwiki.
php/AITopics/Military
What’s New in A.I.
Honda has created a helmet-like
device that can read human brain
waves and transmit them to
humanoid robot. A person can make
the robot perform simple tasks,
including moving Its arm.
 Prototypes of a car with sensors and
small motors to navigate a trafficladen city street with no driver have
been created.

http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/article
s_t14/honda-robot-brain.html#hdng0
Today’s A.I.

While military uses have tended to
dominate commercial development of
autonomous robots in America, business
opportunities for smart robots are also
sizable, according to experts Japan’s
research into intelligent robotics has
been oriented toward helping the
nation’s rapidly aging population perform
domestic tasks.
A.I. In Video Games
• Video game artificial intelligence is a
programming area that tries to make the
computer act in a similar way to human
intelligence.
• A rule based system is used whereby
information and rules are entered into a
database, and when the video game AI is
faced with a situation, it finds appropriate
information and acts accordingly.
http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/arti
ficial-intelligence-video-games.htm
A.I. in Video Games Continued
In 2001 the game Halo featured A.I. that
could use vehicles and team tactics. The AI
could recognize threats such as grenades
and incoming vehicles.
 In 2008 the Game Left 4 Dead featured a
new type of AI in gaming called The
Director. Instead of having a difficulty level
which just ramps up to a constant level, the
A.I. analyze how the players fared in the
game so far, and try to add subsequent
events that would give them a sense of
narrative
