When most people think of artificial intelligence, they don’t think of the ancient Greeks, and yet they should. Some of the Greek myths incorporated ideas of intelligent robots. Most people consider the middle of the 20th century as the beginning of the official artificial intelligence movement. In fact, the term was coined by John McCarthy in 1956 several years after the first operational digital computer made its debut.
The Logic Theorist was the first artificial intelligence (AI) program. The goal of the program was to find basic equations of logic. To the inventor’s delight, the computer did better than the humans by finding new and better proofs than humans. AI was becoming a reality. Suddenly, people started to dream of a day when computers would rule the world.
As the decades passed, artificial intelligence didn’t advance as quickly as scientists thought it would, yet it continued to make steady progression. By the end of the 20th century, robots replaced humans in assembly lines, and computers were used for data mining. In the early 21st century, artificial intelligence had advanced to a point where children played with interactive robo-pets — a situation that was a dream to 18th century toy makers.
Scientific studies advanced as robots explored remote regions of Antarctica, hunting for meteorite samples. A humanoid robot was able to walk at the same rate as a human as it delivered food to customers in restaurant settings. The Internet used artificial intelligence to track web activity and recommend other products and sites.
Most people today take artificial intelligence for granted. It has become an integral part of life. Video games use it, as in the fun flash-based puzzle and strategy game of Tower Defense where one must defeat the invaders of your desktop, or the free shooter game in Assault Cubes. A game that is as addicting as it is fun and set in a realistic and fast paced environment. Artificial intelligence is also part of medical equipment, and it is also used to help disabled people function with tools such as voice dictation. While robots may not rule the world, they are certainly more commonplace than ever before. The ancient Greeks would be amazed.