We all know that AI is quite famous now as people have been using AI for everyday life. We can type some sentences and it will instantly give us information about anything. People have been using AI for work, school, and other things such as projects, data analysis, and others. I’ve used AI for studies, research and sometimes homework which actually helps me improve my learning towards my studies. Nowadays big companies use AI for their own products such as user recommendations, Smart AI Speakers and others. But, how did AI start? Who made it? Today we’re going to see the evolution of AI.
Early concepts
It started in the Greeks era with rumours talking about intelligent machines and myths of mechanical servants designed to perform tasks. During the 19th century some people had ideas about artificial men and thinking machines and it became a popular theme in 80-90 fiction as it is a new idea to begin with.
The start of AI
In 1950 a British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, made a game called an “imitation game” which is a test to tell if you were talking to a human or a machine by interrogating through a text interface. Now “The Turing Test” provided a clear goal for AI researchers: to create machines that can emulate human conversational abilities convincingly. With a concept like this it became a foundation for AI research. In the next step of research, A guy named John Von Neumann made a stored-program computer which is used for researchers and scientists to program and learn algorithms for the AI.
Early AI
In 1956, John McCarthy organized a group to clarify and develop ideas about these thinking machines and it was called The Dartmouth Workshop. It was a summer workshop program which made artificial intelligence a field of study. This group of people were focused to learn and study in the field of AI which influenced the research about AI. He chose the name Artificial Intelligence to call these thinking machines as these machines can mimic the intelligence from a human and can think for itself.
With AI now an interesting topic, researchers and scientists are getting engaged in deeper exploration in the world of artificial intelligence. Hence people have started their study towards the field of subject. People have started to make prototypes of machines such as checkers and chess game AI, W. Grey Walter’s “turtles”, Johns Hopkins “Beast” and other machines. Now these machines weren’t that great, and it doesn’t even look that impressive, but for the learning of artificial intelligence, it is a great jumpstart to the research for AI.
The AI Winter
The AI Winter is an era or a time period in the 1970s where setbacks and problems came on the growth of AI. It started because people have been losing interest and investors have been pulling out funds which made scientists unable to do their research because of lack of funds. With lack of materials, limited computer power, and the lack of use at the time made people think it’s an unhelpful machine.
Modern Day AI
In modern days now, we have heard of these AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and others. In November of 2022, ChatGPT was released to the public. Made by OpenAI, it was favoured by a lot of people as it was a public AI chatbot which you can talk to, ask questions, recommend things, and others. It was such an impact to our society and to our technology too. With Chatgpt released and improving, other companies such as Google and Microsoft raced to make their own chat and released AI assistance such as Copilot and Gemini.
Programmers also have been using AI for Data analysis, Face recognition, and other things which can help their own company. AI can also be used in the healthcare industry as it can help in medical imaging, drug discovery, robotics surgery, and other benefits.
The illustration on the evolution of AI above has raised a lot of questions when we connect it with what people need in modern day. Is it merely a tool to help people with their jobs, to make it more efficient…or is it beyond that.
People have been talking about AI a lot lately and some people are also concerned about the technology…is it for a good cost or is there any negative impact that should be anticipated. Many countries worldwide are using AI and yet so far, I have not read any negative voice on the use of AI.
But questions on the use of AI remains….one of the examples is will AI take over the world? Can AI Take over People’s jobs? Now, I’m pretty sure AI won’t take over as that is an exaggerating question although it could happen. I’m pretty sure at these times and with our technology right now it won’t happen. Now AI is getting smarter and better but the chance of artificial intelligence taking over people’s jobs is low as it can do repetitive tasks but can’t be creative, have empathy, and nuanced understanding. Humans invented AI, so humans himself should be the ones who control the use of AI.
Some people are uneasy about using AI as they think it can “danger” the lives of the people using it as it might steal your data and might trespass people’s privacy but companies have reviewed it as safe as it undergoes security checks, continuous monitoring, and always follows ethical guidelines. Awareness on the importance of data protection during modern day AI should be enhanced but there is always a gap between younger and old generations who are not friendly nor aware of the use of AI. This will pose a challenge as well.
To sum up, it seems that artificial intelligence will influence technology, companies, and even our lives! As now a lot of people use AI in their daily life, but we don’t know if it will be used for good or bad. In my opinion AI is a good thing to be used for and to benefit of and we don’t know how it will impact the future but it can and will be used for helping the people, and helping the future generation of our lives. What we could do now is embrace the future, adapt with changes and master the use of AI.