Technological and Cultural Milestones in Artificial Intelligence
2045
Technological Singularity – Projected date for singularity according to Ray Kurzweil and others.
2026
Dragonfly – NASA has announced that the next destination in the solar system is the unique, richly organic world Titan. Advancing the search for the building blocks of life, the Dragonfly mission will fly multiple sorties to sample and examine sites around Saturn’s icy moon. Dragonfly will launch in 2026 and arrive in 2034. The rotorcraft will fly to dozens of promising locations on Titan looking for prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and Earth. [see the Advanced Air Mobility website for resources on uncrewed aircraft systems and urban air mobility]
2023
ChatGPT / DALL-E – The OpenAI text generator ChatGPT merges with the image generator DALL-E to provide AI prompt engineering.
ChatGPT 4 – An artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI based on the company’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) series of large language models (LLMs).
F-16 Fighter Jet AI – A first successful autonomous long-duration operation, including simulated combat, of a modified F-16 fighter jet, X-62A, by AI software.
Google BARD – A conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google.
Google MedLM – MedLM is a family of foundation models fine-tuned for the healthcare industry. Med-PaLM 2 is one of the text-based models developed by Google Research that powers MedLM, and was the first AI system to reach human expert level on answering US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)-style questions. The development of these models has been informed by specific customer needs such as answering medical questions and drafting summaries.
ISM3312 – The world’s first COVID-19 drug designed by generative AI is approved for human use, with clinical trials expected to begin in China. The new drug, ISM3312, is developed by Insilico Medicine.
MAV3D – Software for generating 3D dynamic scenes (text-to-4D).
Microsoft Bing Copilot – An AI-powered answer engine to ask real questions. and get complete answers; chat and create; and download.
Optimus Gen-2 – AI-powered humanoid robot with delicate hands.
VALL-E – A text-to-speech (T2S) synthesizer, VALL-E, can be trained to mimic anybody’s voice with just three seconds of voice data and may produce the most natural-sounding results to date is reported in a preprint.
CarynAI (chatbot influencer) – A 23-year-old Snapchat influencer, Caryn Marjorie, used OpenAI’s technology to create an A.I. version of herself “that will be your girlfriend” for $1 per minute.
Sight: Extended (film) – In a near future dominated by augmented-reality eyepieces, could behavioral problems (e.g. agoraphobia) be treated by AI transformation of every facet of life into a game (gamification)?
2022
5th Industrial Revolution (5IR, Industry 5.0) ?
ChatGPT 3.5 – OpenAI’s large language model version 3.5 was released.
Stable Diffusion – A deep learning, text-to-image model. Stable Diffusion is released as open-source software, making the technology much more accessible and free to use on personal hardware as well as extendable by third-parties
Anna’s Archive, the World’s Largest Open-source Open-data Library – According to the website, Anna’s Archive (“search engine of shadow libraries: books, papers, comics, magazines”) is a “project that aims to catalog all the books in existence, by aggregating data from various sources … [and to] track humanity’s progress toward making all these books easily available in digital form, through ‘shadow libraries’
The Artifice Girl (film) – Should sentient androids be given personal rights?
Blank (film) – What risks do androids pose when safeguards are accidentally disabled?
M3GAN (film) – What if a robot (Model 3 Generative ANdroid) obsessively bonds with a human?
Théâtre D’opéra Spatial (visual art) – AI-generated art wins Colorado State Fair art competition
2021
LaMDA – Google demonstrates a research project called LaMDA, an automatic language generation system designed to sustain a conversation with a person on any topic
Finch (film) – How might a sentient android learn about life, love, friendship, and what it means to be human?
I’m Your Man (film) – What are potential scenarios for human/android relationships?
2020
AlphaFold – DeepMind’s AlphaFold solves protein folding problem
brain-computer interface chip – Neuralink, an Elon Musk company, has developed a prototype brain–computer interface (BCI) chip, implanted in pigs.
Coded Bias – When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, she embarks on a journey to push for the first-ever U.S. legislation against bias in algorithms that impact us all.
Ingenuity (also, Ginny) – A small robotic helicopter operating on Mars. It is part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, along with the Perseverance rover, which landed with Ingenuity attached to its underside on February 18, 2021. The helicopter was deployed to the surface on April 3, 2021.
Lethal Autonomous Weapons System (LAWS) – The STM Kargu-2, a military-grade autonomous drone, can fly itself to a specific location, pick its own targets and kill without the assistance of a remote human operator. (also loitering munitions)
The Social Dilemma – Tech experts from Silicon Valley sound the alarm on the dangerous impact of social networking, which Big Tech use in an attempt to manipulate and influence.
Superintelligence (film) – Could an all-powerful superintelligence determine the fate of the world based on studying an average human (Carol Peters)?
The Alpha Test (film) – Could an abused AI home-assistant android become homicidal?
Next (TV) – How might future cyber security stop rogue artificial intelligence?
2019
GPT-2 – OpenAI’s large language model version 2 released.
Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI – Report by the European Commission
nanobots – Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania created millions of nanobots in just a few weeks using technology borrowed from the mature semiconductor industry.
G20 Glocal Smart Cities Alliance – G20 nations picked World Economic Forum as secretariat for a G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance.
The Great Hack – A documentary film about the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
A.M.I. (film) – Could an AI computer (AMI – Artificial Machine Intelligence) manipulate a human to commit crimes?
Child’s Play (film) – Could a high-tech AI doll have its safety protocols disabled and become hostile and murderous?
I Am Mother (film) – In the wake of humanity’s extinction, could a robot (Mother) be designed to repopulate the Earth?
AlphaStar (game) – DeepMind’s AlphaStar defeats professional players in StarCraft II
2018
BERT – Google’s BERT model for NLP
AI Rising (film) – Could a sentient android and a human develop an emotional relationship?
Tau (film) – Could a captive resident of a futuristic smart-house (Tau) escape by reasoning?
Upgrade (film) – Could a sentient computer chip brain implant augment human cognizance and physicality?
The Open AI Five (game) – The OpenAI Five defeats professional Dota 2 players
Henry (sex robot) – Realbotix, the company behind the RealDoll, announced the creation of the first-ever male sex bot, Henry.
2017
deepfake (‘deep learning’ and ‘fake’) – Term first used on Reddit.
Sophia – At the Future Investment Summit in Riyadh, a robot called Sophia and referred to by female pronouns was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality
The AI Index – The AI Index tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data relating to artificial intelligence.
Harmony (sex robot) – A sex doll created by Matt McMullen that has the capability of learning about the personal preferences, wants, and desires of the owner.
AlphaZero (game) – AlphaZero defeats Stockfish in chess.
Bladerunner 2049 (film) – Could an android give birth? (see 1982 Bladerunner)
Singularity (film) – Could a post-singularity supercomputer (Kronos) consider humans the biggest threat to Earth?
2016
Tay – Microsoft’s chatbot Tay becomes controversial.
Explainable AI (XAI) – DARPA’s Explainable AI (XAI) program
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (film) – Werner Herzog’s exploration of the Internet and the connected world.
Morgan (film) – How could sentient androids be evaluated and controlled?
AlphaGo (game) – Google’s AlphaGo defeats Go world champion Lee Sedol.
Westword (TV) – Could androids be designed for every human appetite to be indulged without consequence? (original movie 1973)
2016-current AI Spring – An ongoing period of rapid and unprecedented development in the field of artificial intelligence, with the generative AI race being a key component of this boom, which began in earnest with the founding of OpenAI in 2016.
2015
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) – ALIAS envisions a tailorable, drop-in, removable kit that would promote the addition of high levels of automation into existing aircraft, enabling operation with reduced onboard crew. [autonomous aircraft]
ImageNet – A database for object recognition research.
OpenAI – OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory consisting of the non-profit OpenAI Incorporated and its for-profit subsidiary corporation OpenAI Limited Partnership.
AI threat – Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates joins a number of prominent tech gurus and scientists in revealing his thoughts on the potentially dangerous effects and unintended consequences of artificial intelligence on human civilization. Previously, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and others had expressed similar sentiments. Those on the other side of the debate felt artificial intelligence would usher in an era of unprecedented human achievement, aided by the “minds” of humanity’s artificial brethren. While Gates and others felt that in the short-term intelligent machines would benefit mankind, they foresaw a future where more advanced super-intelligent machines could pose a grave threat to human existence.
Chappie (film) – What might be the consequences of robots with the ability to think and feel for themselves?
Uncanny (film) – What ‘peculiar emergent behavior impossible to program’ might result from AI sentience (Adam)?
2014
Eugene Goostman Chatbot Turing Test – The 2001 chatbot is said to have passed the Turing test in the University of Reading competition, launching controversy. Researchers call for the creation of a new Turing test to be decided at the 2015 workshop.
neural machine translation – An approach to machine translation that uses an artificial neural network to predict the likelihood of a sequence of words, typically modeling entire sentences in a single integrated model.
generative adversarial networks (GANs) – A generative adversarial network is a class of machine learning frameworks and a prominent framework for approaching generative AI.
Automata (film) – Could sentient androids succeed humans in natural/artificial evolution?
First International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots – The congress was held in Funchal, Madeira. The second conference was held in the United Kingdom in December 2016,
Ex Machina (film) – How do we know when true artificial intelligence has been achieved?
Interstellar (film) – What role might AI have in space exploration and colonization?
Lucy (film) – Would human superintelligence result in transhumanism?
Transcendence (film) – What might be the implications of uploading one’s consciousness into an AI program to ‘transcend’ the technological singularity?
2013
The Machine (film) – How might robots designed for warfare resolve ethical conflicts with killing?
Her (film) – Could a computer operating system be ‘lovable’?
2012
Google Brain – A Google Brain computer cluster trains itself to recognize a cat from millions of images in YouTube videos.
Robot & Frank (film) – What could be future relationships (including criminal) with humans and robots?
2011
4th Industrial Revolution (4IR, Industry 4.0)
Siri – Apple introduces intelligent personal assistant Siri on the iPhone 4S.
Smarter Cities – IBM named 24 cities as Smarter Cities winners from 200 applicants.
Smart City Expo World Congress – 6000 visitors from over 50 countries attended first Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.
Watson Jeopardy (TV game) – IBM’s Watson wins “Jeopardy!” beating former champions Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.
Black Mirror (TV) – An anthology series exploring a twisted, high-tech multiverse where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide.
2010
ImageNet Challenge – Since 2010, the ImageNet project runs an annual software contest, the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC), where software programs compete to correctly classify and detect objects and scenes.
Tron: Legacy (film) – What could be the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds with significant technological advancement?
2009
Google Self-Driving Car Project – First self-driven car by Google later named Waymo.
Smarter Cities – IBM unveiled a $50m Smarter Cities campaign to help cities run more efficiently.
Moon (film) – What might distinguish artificial intelligence from human intelligence when androids replicate human physiology?
Caprica (TV) – What might be the unintended/unforeseen consequences (externalities) of artificial intelligence?
2008
Cleverbot – A chatterbot web application that uses machine learning techniques to have conversations with humans. It was created by British AI scientist Rollo Carpenter. It was preceded by Jabberwacky, a chatbot project that began in 1988 and went online in 1997
Smarter Planet – IBM Smarter Planet project investigated applying sensors, networks, and analytics to urban issues.
WALL-E (film) – Could artificial general intelligence mirror human values?
2005
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology – Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts an event he calls the Singularity will occur around 2045, when the intelligence of artificial minds exceeds that of the human brain.
Smart Cities – Cisco put up $25m over five years for research into smart cities.
Smart City – Term first used by Cisco and IBM.
Stanley (race) – A Stanford vehicle wins the DARPA grand challenge, diving autonomously across the desert for 131 miles (211 kilometers).
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (film) – Could alien intelligence be similar to human intelligence?
2004
I, Robot (film) – Might compliance with the 3 Laws of Robotics create scenarios where robots will be forced to make decisions that follow ethical algorithms but result in questionable actions?
Anonymous (association) – Forming out of interactions on the image-sharing website 4chan, Anonymous is a loose association of users, many of whom consider themselves ‘hacktivists’. Their activities started as purely digital publicity stunts and protests that included the hacking of websites for groups like the Church of Scientology and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Later targets included many government agencies around the world. In public, many Anonymous affiliates (referred to as Anons) can be identified by their wearing of Guy Fawkes masks.
2003
Anonymous – The nebulous group of hackers, makes its first moves. This vast network of users often acts to protect the privacy of regular users.
Moneyball (novel) – The story of a professional baseball team’s analytics-driven approach to roster building. (2011 film)
2002
Roomba – iRobot’s Roomba is introduced. Using a cleaning algorithm, the autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner could clean a room while detecting and avoiding obstacles.
Minority Report (film) – Could crime be combatted by predicting future behavior?
Resident Evil (film) – Could a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer (the Red Queen) accidentally or intentionally create biohazards?
Simone (film) – Could generative-AI create a digital person (Simone – SIMulation ONE) that cannot be recognized as synthetic? (see 2002 deepfake)
2001
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (film) – The Pinnochio story is retold with a boy android (David).
2000
ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative MObility) – Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot is introduced. It could walk 1 mph, climb stairs and change its direction after detecting hazards. Using the camera mounted in its head, ASIMO could also recognize faces, gestures and the movements of multiple objects. Additionally, ASIMO had microphones that allowed it to react to voice commands. About 100 were built.
1999
Bicentennial Man (film) – Would an android endeavor to become human through acquiring emotions?
The Thirteenth Floor (film) – What if reality is an AI simulation?
AIBO (Artificial Intelligence roBOt) (toy) – The Sony AIBO was a robotic pet dog designed to “learn” by interacting with its environment, its owners and other AIBOs. It responded to more than 100 voice commands and talked back in a tonal language. It was even programmed to occasionally ignore commands like its biological four-legged counterparts.
The Matrix (film) – What if the boundaries between physical and extended reality are manipulated by an evil cyber-intelligence?
1998
quantum computer – Isaac Chuang of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Neil Gershenfeld of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Mark Kubinec of the University of California at Berkeley.
1997
Deep Blue Chess Match (game) – IBM’s Deep Blue computer beats reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov.
1995
ALICE – The chatbot ALICE was developed with natural language sample data collection ability.
1994
The Digital City – Amsterdam created a virtual ‘digital city’ – De Digital Stad (DDS) – to promote Internet usage.
Virtuosity (film) – What would happen if a virtual reality simulation was created using the personalities of multiple serial killers?
1992
Homewrecker (film) – Could an AI smart-home develop obsessive and malevolent behaviors?
1990
World Wide Web – At the world’s biggest physics laboratory, CERN in Switzerland, English programmer and physicist Tim Berners-Lee submits two proposals for what will become the Web, starting in March of 1989. Neither is approved. He proceeds anyway, with only unofficial support from his boss and his coworker Robert Cailliau. By Christmas of 1990 he has prototyped “WorldWideWeb” (as he writes it) in just three months on an advanced NeXT computer.
The Difference Engine (novel) – William Gibson and Bruce Sterling are known as two of the leading lights in developing Cyberpunk literature in the 1980s. In 1990, the pair collaborate on what many consider to be the first blockbuster “Steampunk” novel.
1989
Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) – The process of discovering useful knowledge from a collection of data.
Deep Thought Chess Match (game) – David Levy is the first master chess player to be defeated by a computer. The program Deep Thought defeats Levy who had beaten all other previous computer counterparts since 1968.
1987
virtual reality – Jaron Lanier created a wearable head-mounted display (HMD) and intuitive human interface technology that allowed one to interact with and control the images in the VR environmental using a DataGlove, a hand gesture interface tool.
Eureka PROMETHEUS Project (PROgraMme for a European Traffic of Highest Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety) – First driverless van by Mercedez-Benz, which can run at 55mph with no obstacles.
I.F.O. (Identified Flying Object) (film) – What if a weaponized surveillance helicopter (small uncrewed aerial vehicle / drone) became sentient and malevolent?
Star Trek: The Next Generation ‘Data’ (TV) – How would a self-aware android (Lieutenant Commander Data) integrate with humanity?
RoboCop (film) – Would robots and cyborgs be developed for law enforcement?
1987-1993 – Second AI Winter
1986
Short Circuit (film) – Could an accident (electrical shock) result in a robot (Number 5, Johnny 5) suddenly becoming sentient?
1985
avatar – The game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar asked users to think of the player as themselves as they underwent their quest, marking the first time “avatar” was used to mean an on-screen representation of the user.
1984
cyberspace – In his novel Neuromancer, William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.” Gibson also spawned a genre of fiction known as “cyberpunk” in his book, which described a dark, complex future filled with intelligent machines, computer viruses, and paranoia.
Cyc – A long-term artificial intelligence project that aims to assemble a comprehensive ontology and knowledge base that spans the basic concepts and rules about how the world works.
The Terminator (film) – Would a technological singularity result in a robot society (Skynet) that wishes to destroy humanity?
1983
The Internet – The various computer networks did not have a standard way to communicate with each other. A new communications protocol was established called Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP). This allowed different kinds of computers on different networks to “talk” to each other. ARPANET and the Defense Data Network officially changed to the TCP/IP standard on January 1, 1983, hence the birth of the Internet.
War Games (film) – Could a military supercomputer (WOPR – War Operation Plan Response) confuse a war game with actual nuclear warfare?
Electronic Musical Instruments (music) – Raymond Kurzweil, a pioneer in developing electronic keyboards, predicts MIDI and other advances will make traditional musical instruments obsolete in the future. In the 21st century, he writes in his book, The Age of Intelligent Machines, “There will still be acoustic instruments around, but they will be primarily of historical interest, much like harpsichords are today…. While the historically desirable sounds of pianos and violins will continue to be used, most music will use sounds with no direct acoustic counterpart… There will not be a sharp division between the musician and non-musician.”
1982
Fifth General Computer Systems Project (FGCS) – 10-year initiative begun in 1982 by Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to create computers using massively parallel computing and logic programming.
Machine of the Year (periodical) – TIME magazine alters its annual tradition of naming a “Man of the Year,” choosing instead to name the personal computer its “Machine of the Year.” In introducing the theme, TIME publisher John A. Meyers wrote, “Several human candidates might have represented 1982, but none symbolized the past year more richly, or will be viewed by history as more significant, than a machine: the computer.”
Tron (film) – The use of computer-generated graphics in movies takes a big step forward with Disney´s release of Tron. One of the first movies to use such graphics, the plot of Tron itself also featured computers – it followed the adventures of a hacker translated into data and transported inside a computer.
Knight Rider (TV) – Could an advanced, artificially intelligent, self-aware, and nearly indestructible car be designed for law enforcement?
Blade Runner (film) – Would sentient androids (replicants) be terminated if they try to enter into society? What updated version of the Turing Test (“Voight-Kampff”) could be devised to identify a replicant? (see 2017 Bladerunner 2049)
1980
Robodoc – The orthopedic image-guided system development Hap Paul DVM and William Barbar MD for use in prosthetic hip replacement.
Saturn 3 (film) – Would a wetware robot (Hector) assimilate the abnormal psychology of the human program model?
1980-1987 The AI Boom – Most of the 1980s showed a period of rapid growth and interest in AI, now labeled as the “AI boom.” This came from both breakthroughs in research, and additional government funding to support the researchers.
Pre-1980 “The Elder Days” – The heroic age of hackerdom (roughly, pre-1980); the era of the PDP-10, TECO, ITS, and the ARPANET.
1979
CUP Wars (comic) – A 1979 large-format comic by Chas Andres chronicling the attempts of the brainwashed androids of IPM (Impossible to Program Machines) to conquer and destroy the peaceful denizens of HEC (Human Engineered Computers).
1978
Battlestar Galactica ‘Cylons’ (TV) – Would aliens design warrior robots (Cylons)?
1977
Demon Seed (film) – (see 1973 Demon Seed novel)
C3PO and R2D2 (movie robots) – Two sentient “droids” from the Star Wars series of movies.
1976
Apple-I – Designed by Sunnyvale, California native Steve Wozniak, and marketed by his friend Steve Jobs, the Apple-1 is a single-board computer for hobbyists. Apple II was launched the following year. Apple Computers founded.
MYCIN – An expert system for medical diagnosis.
Logan’s Run (film) – Would a sentient metropolis (smart city?) manage population control with a maximum age limit (35 years)?
1975
personal computer – For its January issue, hobbyist magazine Popular Electronics runs a cover story of a new computer kit – the Altair 8800.
Microsoft – Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
The Stepford Wives (film) – Would husbands replace their wives with programmed android replicas? (remade in 2004)
1974
A Cluster Analysis of Los Angeles – Los Angeles created the first urban big data project: “A Cluster Analysis of Los Angeles” report.
La Faim (hunger) (animated film) – Filmmaker Peter Foldes, an international figure in animation since the 1950s, begins collaborating with Canada’s National Research Council in 1969. Working with computer scientist Nestor Burtnyk, Foldes directed this ten-minute film dealing with the idea of food inequality. Using the animation concept of key frame animation, where an animator would produce the most important frames and assistants would fill in the gaps, Burtnyk designed a program in which the computer filled in the gaps, producing an effect that made the images seem to glide from one to another. La Faim would win many international awards, including a special Jury Prize at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, and an Academy Award nomination.
1974-1980 – First AI winter
1973
Westworld (film) – Could a computer virus turn programmed, theme park androids violent? (see 2016 remake)
Demon Seed (novel) – Could a sentient computer (Proteus) imprison a woman and impregnate her? A best-seller, Demon Seed was adapted as a film in 1977 by Donald Cammell and starred Julie Christie.
1972
Silent Running (film) – Could AI create artificial ecosystems in outerspace?
1971
Email – In the early 1970s email made the jump from timesharing systems – each with perhaps a couple of hundred users – to the newly burgeoning computer networks. Suddenly, messages are free to travel anywhere the network goes, and email explodes.
Tiger Teams – T
1970
WABOT-1 – the first anthropomorphic robot built in Japan
1969
3rd Industrial Revolution (3IR, Industry 3.0)
1968
The Mother of All Demos – Douglas Engelbart and his team at SRI, with funding from ARPA, unveil their experimental ‘oNline System’ at a computing conference in San Francisco in what will become known as the ‘mother of all demos.’ For ninety minutes, the stunned audience of around a thousand witnesses collaborative editing, videoconferencing, word processing, and a strange pointing device jokingly referred to as a “mouse.”
HAL 9000 (Heuristically programmed ALgorithm computer 9000) (movie computer) – Would a sentient computer (HAL 9000) sacrifice human lives to fulfill a programmed mission?
1967
Star Trek (TV) – One of the most popular television series of all time, Star Trek tells of the journeys of the starship Enterprise and its 5-year mission of exploration. Star Trek speculated on technologies such as voice recognition, handheld computing and communications, human-computer interaction, and machine-supported medical diagnosis.
1966
Shakey – First mobile robot. SRI International´s Shakey robot becomes the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intelligence. Equipped with sensing devices and driven by a problem-solving program called STRIPS, the robot found its way around the halls of SRI by applying information about its environment to a route. Shakey used a TV camera, laser range finder, and bump sensors to collect data, which it then transmitted to a DEC PDP-10 and PDP-15. The computer sent commands to Shakey over a radio link. Shakey could move at a speed of 2 meters per hour.
1965
Dendral [Expert System] – The first expert system was developed by Edward Feigenbaum and Joshua Lederberg of Stanford University in California, U.S. Dendral, as their expert system was later known, was designed to analyze chemical compounds.
intelligence explosion – Artificial general intelligence might bring about an intelligence explosion. (I.J. Good)
Alphaville (film) – A leading light in the La Nouvelle Vague (The New Wave) of French cinema, director Jean-Luc Godard tackles science fiction in his gritty detective story Alphaville. Set in a technocratic dystopia, Alphaville featured secret agent Lemmy Caution (played by Eddie Constantine) as he investigates the situation surrounding Professor von Braun, creator of the Alpha 60 computer. This computer, which has gained sentience, controls Alphaville, and Caution must battle it using his two most dangerous weapons – his handgun and poetry! Alphaville served as an inspiration for the formation of the Cyberpunk genre.
1964
ELIZA – The first interactive computer program was invented, which used the English language to communicate. Joseph Weizenbaum finished ELIZA in 1966. ELIZA is a natural language processing environment. Its most famous mode was called DOCTOR, which responded to user questions much like a psychotherapist. DOCTOR was able to trick some users into believing they were interacting with another human, at least until the program reached its limitations and became nonsensical. DOCTOR used predetermined phrases or questions and would substitute key words to mimic a human actually listening to user queries or statements.
1963
Project MAC [Computer Vision] – Project MAC (the Project on Mathematics and Computation, later backronymed to Multiple Access Computer, Machine Aided Cognitions, or Man and Computer) was launched with a $2 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange permits machines from different manufacturers to exchange data.
1961
MUSIC IV Daisy Bell (music) – Throughout the 1950s and early ’60s, Bell Labs was one of the centers for computer research in graphics and music. Bell Labs had developed a speech synthesis system for their IBM 704 mainframe computer. John Kelly and Carol Lochbaum programmed the vocals, while Max Mathews programmed the accompaniment. One of the attendees at the first demonstration was author Arthur C. Clarke, who recommended it to director Stanley Kubrick for his film version of the book 2001: A Space Odyssey.
1961-1971 “Iron Age” – In the history of computing, 1961-1971 — the formative era of commercial mainframe technology, when ferrite-core dinosaurs ruled the earth. The Iron Age began, ironically enough, with the delivery of the first minicomputer (the PDP-1) and ended with the introduction of the first commercial microprocessor (the Intel 4004) in 1971.
1960
cyborg (cybernetic and organism) A being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.
1959
General Problem Solver (GPS) – A computer program created in 1957 by Herbert A. Simon, J. C. Shaw, and Allen Newell (RAND Corporation) intended to work as a universal problem solver machine.
MIT AI Laboratory – Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory founded.
Checkers Game Program (game) – Arthur Samuel
1958
Singularity – The “accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life give the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.” (John von Neuman)
natural language processing – Term created by Noam Chomsky.
1956
“Birth of Artificial Intelligence” – Dartmouth Conference
artificial intelligence – Term created by John McCarthy.
Robby the Robot (movie robot) – Robby the Robot appears in MGM’s 1956 science fiction movie Forbidden Planet. In the film, Robby was the creation of Dr. Morbius and was built to specifications found in an alien computer system. Robby’s duties included assisting the human crew while following Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (1941).
Illiac Suite (music) – Created using the Illiac I computer at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, the Illiac Suite is one of the earliest pieces of music composed using an electronic computer.
1955
Hacking – Term first used in relation to using technical know-how at a meeting of the Technical Model Railroad Club. In the meeting minutes, it was used to describe how members modified the functions of their high-tech train sets.
1954
Unimate (universal automation) – First programmable robotic arm (industrial robot) designed by George Devol. UNIMATE, the first mass-produced industrial robot, begins work at General Motors in 1961. “Foundation of the robotics industry.”
1952
machine learning (Arthur Samuel)
1951
The Day the Earth Stood Still (film) – Could an advanced alien race demand that Earth must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets? (remade in 2008)
1950
The Turing Test – Alan Turing creates a standard test to answer: “Can machines think?” He proposed that if a computer, on the basis of written replies to questions, could not be distinguished from a human respondent, then it must be “thinking”. Introduced in the Computing Machinery and Intelligence.
I, Robot (novel) – Isaac Asimov publishes the influential sci-fi story collection.
1949
AI-human intellect competition – On June 9, at Manchester University’s Lister Oration, British brain surgeon Geoffrey Jefferson states, “Not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain – that is, not only write it but know that it had written it. No mechanism could feel (and not merely artificially signal, an easy contrivance) pleasure at its successes, grief when its valves fuse, be warmed by flattery, be made miserable by its mistakes, be charmed by sex, be angry or miserable when it cannot get what it wants.” On June 11, The London Times quotes the mathematician Alan Turing. “I do not see why it (the machine) should not enter any one of the fields normally covered by the human intellect, and eventually compete on equal terms. I do not think you even draw the line about sonnets, though the comparison is perhaps a little bit unfair because a sonnet written by a machine will be better appreciated by another machine.”
1948
Cybernetics – Norbert Wiener publishes the book Cybernetics, which has a major influence on research into artificial intelligence and control systems. Wiener coined the term “cybernetics” from the Greek word for “steersman.”
The Mathematical Theory of Communication – American mathematician Claude Shannon writes The Mathematical Theory of Communication, laying the groundwork for understanding the theoretical limits of communication between people and machines. As part of this work Shannon identified the bit as a fundamental unit of information and, coincidentally, the basic unit of computation.
First Computer Program – University of Manchester researchers Frederic Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Toothill develop the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), better known as the Manchester “Baby.” The Baby was built to test a new memory technology developed by Williams and Kilburn — soon known as the Williams Tube – which was the first high-speed electronic random access memory for computers. Their first program, consisting of seventeen instructions and written by Kilburn, ran on June 21st, 1948. This was the first program in history to run on a digital, electronic, stored-program computer.
Elmer and Elsie – Robots described as “tortoises” due to their shape and slow rate of movement. The three-wheeled tortoise robots were capable of phototaxis, by which they could find their way to a recharging station when they ran low on battery power. [see 2002 Roomba]
1947
Computer “bug” (slang) – The word ‘bug,’ when applied to computers, means some form of error or failure. On September 9th, Grace Hopper records what she jokingly called the first actual computer bug – in this case, a moth stuck between relay contacts of the Harvard Mark II computer prior to its eventual installation at the Naval Weapons Laboratory at Dalhgren, Virginia.
1946
A Logic Named Joe (short story) – In the March 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, Will Jenkins publishes A Logic Named Joe, a short story detailing a world where computers, called Logics, were interconnected into a massive, worldwide network. One such Logic begins to malfunction, giving out secret information about disallowed topics. Almost fifty years prior to the invention of the Internet, A Logic Named Joe contains one of the most prescient views of the capabilities of computers in a network.
1945
Plankalkuel (Plan Calculus). Konrad Zuse begins work on Plankalkül (Plan Calculus), the first algorithmic programming language, with the goal of creating the theoretical preconditions for the solution of general problems.
Memex [memory expansion] – A hypothetical electromechanical device for interacting with microform documents and described in Vannervar Bush’s article “As We May Think.” The concept of the memex influenced the development of early hypertext systems, eventually leading to the creation of the World Wide Web, and personal knowledge base software. “Memex” concept – With side-by-side screens, the imaginary Memex desk is meant to let a user compare and create links between microfilm documents, somewhat like today’s clickable Web links and bookmarks. The idea is that people will continually build on each other’s associative trails through the world’s knowledge, helping tackle the growing problem of information overload.
1944
Harvard Mark 1 – Conceived by Harvard physics professor Howard Aiken, and designed and built by IBM, the Harvard Mark 1 is a room-sized, relay-based calculator. The machine had a fifty-foot long camshaft running the length of machine that synchronized the machine’s thousands of component parts and used 3,500 relays.
Colossus – First Colossus operational at Bletchley Park. Designed by British engineer Tommy Flowers, the Colossus is designed to break the complex Lorenz ciphers used by the Nazis during World War II. A total of ten Colossi were delivered, each using as many as 2,500 vacuum tubes.
1943
ENIAC – Started in 1943, the ENIAC computing system was built by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania. Because of its electronic, as opposed to electromechanical, technology, it is over 1,000 times faster than any previous computer.
Curta Calculator – Curt Herzstark design Curta calculator. Curt Herzstark was an Austrian engineer who worked in his family’s manufacturing business until he was arrested by the Nazis in 1943.
Neural networks – A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity. (Warren S. McCulloch and Walter H. Pitts)
1943-1960 “Stone Age” – In computer folklore, an ill-defined period from ENIAC (ca. 1943) to the mid-1950s; the great age of electromechanical dinosaurs. Sometimes used for the entire period up to 1960–61 (see Iron Age); however, it is funnier and more descriptive to characterize the latter period in terms of a ‘Bronze Age’ era of transistor-logic, pre-ferrite-core machines with drum or CRT mass storage (as opposed to just mercury delay lines and/or relays).
1942
Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) – After successfully demonstrating a proof-of-concept prototype in 1939, Professor John Vincent Atanasoff receives funds to build a full-scale machine at Iowa State College (now University).
1941
The Three Laws of Robotics – A set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov, which were to be followed by robots in several of his stories.
robotics – Isaac Asimov
Z3 – An early computer built by German engineer Konrad Zuse working in complete isolation from developments elsewhere, uses 2,300 relays, performs floating point binary arithmetic, and has a 22-bit word length. The Z3 was used for aerodynamic calculations but was destroyed in a bombing raid on Berlin in late 1943.
1940
Bombe – Built as an electro-mechanical means of decrypting Nazi ENIGMA-based military communications during World War II, the British Bombe is conceived of by computer pioneer Alan Turing and Harold Keen of the British Tabulating Machine Company.
1939
Complex Number Calculator (CNC) – In 1939, Bell Telephone Laboratories completes Complex Number Calculator, designed by scientist George Stibitz. In 1940, Stibitz demonstrated the CNC at an American Mathematical Society conference held at Dartmouth College.
Elektro at the World’s Fair. Built by Westinghouse, the relay-based Electro robot responds to the rhythm of voice commands and delivers wisecracks pre-recorded on 78 rpm records. It appeared at the World’s Fair, and it could move its head and arms…and even “smoked” cigarettes.
1937
Model K Adder – Bell Laboratories scientist George Stibitz sues relays for a demonstration adder. Called the “Model K” Adder because he built it on his “Kitchen” table, this simple demonstration circuit provides proof of concept for applying Boolean logic to the design of computers, resulting in construction of the relay-based Model I Complex Calculator in 1939.
Z2 – The Z2 was built by Konrad Zuse using telephone company relays.
1936
Z1 – The Z1 was created by Konrad Zuse in his parents’ living room between 1936 and 1938. It is considered to be the first electromechanical binary programmable computer and the first functional modern computer.
Turing Universal Machine – Turing’s abstract ‘universal computing machine’ consists of a limitless memory, in which both data and instructions are stored, and a scanner that moves back and forth through the memory, symbol by symbol, reading what it finds and writing further symbols.
1935
World Brain – A collection of essays and addresses by the English science fiction pioneer, social reformer, evolutionary biologist and historian H.G. Wells. Wells describes his vision of the World Brain: a new, free, synthetic, authoritative, permanent “World Encyclopaedia” that could help world citizens make the best use of universal information resources and make the best contribution to world peace.
1934
Mundaneum – Belgian Paul Otlet has a modest goal: collect, organize, and share all the world’s knowledge. Otlet had co-created a massive “search engine” starting in the early 1900s. His Mundaneum now combines enhanced card catalogs with sixteen million entries, photos, documents, microfilm, and more. He is working on integrating telegraphy and multiple media, from sound recordings to television.
1933
Telex messaging network comes online. Like the Volkswagen Beetle and modern freeway systems, the Telex messaging network comes out of the early period of Germany’s Third Reich. Telex starts as a way to distribute military messages, but soon becomes a world-wide network of both official and commercial text messaging that will persist in some countries into the 2000s.
1927
Metropolis Maschinenmensch (machine human) (film) – Could a robot impersonate a female human (Maria)?
1921
Rossum’s Universal Robots (theater) – Could robots be designed to perform all unpleasant manual labor? The first use of the word ‘robot’.
1886
Android – The Future Eve (also translated as Tomorrow’s Eve and The Eve of the Future; French: L’Ève future) is a symbolist science fiction novel by the French author Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam. Begun in 1878 and originally published in 1886, the novel is known for popularizing the term ‘Android’.
