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The word "Robot" is introduced
Karel Capek's play "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots) produced in 1921 (London opening, 1923). First use of the word 'robot' in English. (Robot in Czech means forced labor) -
First Electronic Computer
The electronic computer revolutionized every aspect of the storage and processing of information (developed in both the US and Germany). The first computers required large, separate air-conditioned rooms, and were a programmers nightmare involving the separate configuration of thousands of wires to get a program running. -
Neural Networks foundations
Warren McCulloch & Walter Pitts publish "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity" (1943), laying foundations for neural networks. -
Cybernetics
Norbert Wiener published "Cybernetics," a major influence on later research into artificial intelligence. He drew on his World War II experiments with anti-aircraft systems that anticipated the course of enemy planes by interpreting radar images. Wiener coined the term "cybernetics" from the Greek word for "steersman." In addition to "cybernetics," historians note Wiener for his analysis of brain waves and for his exploration of the similarities between the human brain and the modern computing -
First Stored Program Computer
The 1949 innovation, the stored program computer, made the job of entering a program easier, and advancements in computer theory lead to computer science, and eventually Artificial intelligence. With the invention of an electronic means of processing data, came a medium that made AI possible. -
The Turing Test
Alan Turing proposes the Turing Test as a measure of machine intelligence -
The beginnings of AI
Although the computer provided the technology necessary for AI, it was not until the early 1950's that the link between human intelligence and machines was really observed. Norbert Wiener was one of the first Americans to make observations on the principle of feedback theory. -
First working AI programs were written
The first working AI programs were written in 1951 to run on the Ferranti Mark 1 machine of the University of Manchester: a checkers-playing program written by Christopher Strachey and a chess-playing program written by Dietrich Prinz -
The Logic Theorist
Alan Newell, JC Shaw, and Herbert Simon develop the Logic Theorist, considered by many to be the first AI program. The program, representing each problem as a tree model, would attempt to solve it by selecting the branch that would most likely result in the correct conclusion. The logic theorist's impact has made it a crucial stepping stone in developing the AI field. -
Dartmouth Conference
John McCarthy coined the term "Artificial Intelligence" as the topic of the Dartmouth Conference - first conference devoted to the subject -
General Problem Solver (GPS)
The first version of the GPS was demonstrated by Newell, Shaw, and Simon. The program developed by the same pair which developed the Logic Theorist. The GPS was an extension of Wiener's feedback principle, and was capable of solving a greater extent of common sense problems. A couple of years after the GPS, IBM contracted a team to research artificial intelligence. -
LISP language
John McCarthy develops the LISP language, which is still used today. LISP stands for LISt Processing, and was soon adopted as the language of choice among most AI developers. -
UNIMATE
UNIMATE, the first industrial robot, began work at General Motors. Obeying step-by-step commands stored on a magnetic drum, the 4,000-pound arm sequenced and stacked hot pieces of die-cast metal. The brainchild of Joe Engelberger and George Devol, UNIMATE originally automated the manufacture of TV picture tubes. -
Rancho Arm
Researchers designed the Rancho Arm at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Downey, California as a tool for the handicapped. The Rancho Arm´s six joints gave it the flexibility of a human arm. Acquired by Stanford University in 1963, it holds a place among the first artificial robotic arms to be controlled by a computer. -
ELIZA
Joseph Weizenbaum (MIT) built ELIZA, an interactive program that carries on a dialogue in English on any topic. It was a popular toy at AI centers on the ARPA-net when a version that "simulated" the dialogue of a psychotherapist was programmed. -
Stanford Arm
Victor Scheinman´s Stanford Arm made a breakthrough as the first successful electrically powered, computer-controlled robot arm. By 1974, the Stanford Arm could assemble a Ford Model T water pump, guiding itself with optical and contact sensors. The Stanford Arm led directly to commercial production. Scheinman went on to design the PUMA series of industrial robots for Unimation, robots used for automobile assembly and other industrial tasks. -
Shakey - first mobile robot
SRI International´s Shakey became 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 radioed back commands to Shakey — who then moved at a speed of 2 me -
Speak and Spell
Texas Instruments Inc. introduced Speak & Spell, a talking learning aid for ages 7 and up. Its debut marked the first electronic duplication of the human vocal tract on a single chip of silicon. Speak & Spell utilized linear predictive coding to formulate a mathematical model of the human vocal tract and predict a speech sample based on previous input. It transformed digital information processed through a filter into synthetic speech and could store more than 100 seconds of linguistic sounds. -
The Stanford Cart
built by Hans Moravec, becomes the first computer-controlled, autonomous vehicle when it successfully traverses a chair-filled room and circumnavigates the Stanford AI Lab. -
MIDI
The Musical Instrument Digital Interface was introduced at the first North American Music Manufacturers show in Los Angeles. MIDI is an industry-standard electronic interface that links electronic music synthesizers. The MIDI information tells a synthesizer when to start and stop playing a specific note, what sound that note should have, how loud it should be, and other information. -
US sales of AI hardware and software surge
In 1986, US sales of AI-related hardware and software surged to $425 million. Expert systems in particular demand because of their efficiency. Companies such as Digital Electronics were using XCON, an expert system designed to program the large VAX computers. DuPont, General Motors, and Boeing relied heavily on expert systems Indeed to keep up with the demand for the computer experts, companies such as Teknowledge and Intellicorp specializing in creating software to aid in producing expert syste -
1990s
Major advances in all areas of AI, with significant demonstrations in machine learning, intelligent tutoring, case-based reasoning, multi-agent planning, scheduling, uncertain reasoning, data mining, natural language understanding and translation, vision, virtual reality, games, and other topics. -
Robot Cars
With passengers on board, the twin robot cars VaMP and VITA-2 of Ernst Dickmanns and Daimler-Benz drive more than one thousand kilometers on a Paris three-lane highway in standard heavy traffic at speeds up to 130 km/h. They demonstrate autonomous driving in free lanes, convoy driving, and lane changes left and right with autonomous passing of other cars. -
Chess machine beats Garry Kasparov
The Deep Blue chess machine (IBM) beats the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. -
2000s
Interactive robot pets (a.k.a. "smart toys") become commercially available, realizing the vision of the 18th cen. novelty toy makers. The Nomad robot explores remote regions of Antarctica looking for meteorite samples. -
AI and Jeopardy
AI received much public attention in February, 2011, with the Jeopardy! exhibition match during which IBM's Watson soundly defeated the two greatest Jeopardy! champions, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.