The Dartmouth Workshop
The term "Artificial Intelligence" was first coined at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project. Led by John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, this era focussed on symbolic logic and the belief that every aspect of learning could be simulated by a machine.
Expert Systems
The 1980s saw the rise of Expert Systems—programmes designed to solve complex problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge. These were adopted in industries like medical diagnosis and mineral exploration, marking AI's first industrial utility.
The Deep Learning Revolution
Fuelled by Big Data and GPU acceleration, Deep Learning redefined AI. Neural networks with multiple hidden layers began outperforming humans in image recognition, transitioning AI from rule-based logic to advanced pattern recognition.
Generative AI & Transformers
The current era is defined by Large Language Models (LLMs). Using the Transformer architecture, AI has achieved unprecedented capabilities in natural language understanding, moving towards general-purpose intelligence.