To younger generations, AI might seem like the latest among new technologies. But in reality, it is a discipline with more than 70 years of history already behind it. In fact, It was the middle of the 20th century when research from this new branch of computer science first started getting published. Alan Turing, the British scientist who played a decisive role in deciphering German messages during World War II, laid the initial foundations in 1950 with his seminal essay Computing Machinery and Intelligence, predicting that in fifty years time “one will be able to speak of machines thinking.” Five years later, American mathematician John McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence” to refer to the discipline in its nascent form.
Since then, AI has come a long way, but its evolution has been far from linear. In fact, this seventy-year history is marked by an irregular timeline in which phases of enthusiasm and great progress have been followed by others of indifference. These periods of skepticism and lackluster investment have been called the winters of artificial intelligence