Artificial Intelligence - Recollections of the Pioneers

Jim Doran will first talk about his time, from 1964 to 1969, as a Junior Research Fellow in the Edinburgh Experimental Programming Unit directed by Donald Michie, and give some insight into the scientific objectives of the group, and into the adventurous and combative atmosphere of those early days. Then he will describe the early development of the Essex AI group, founded by Tony Brooker in about 1972, which also became one of the leading UK AI centres. Finally he will offer some remarks about the history of AI in the UK from the thirties until today. What were the key developments, what caused them, and how much scientific progress have we really made?' Presentation PDF (920KB), PowerPoint (912KB).