What is AI Winter? Definition, History and Timeline

The trajectory of AI has been marked by several winters since its inception in 1955 in a formal proposal made by computer scientist and AI researcher Marvin Minksy and several others. Between 1956 and 1974, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded AI research with few requirements for developing functional projects. After the initial hype generated by these AI projects, a quiet decade followed where interest and support gradually tapered off. In 1969, Minsky and another AI researcher, Seymour Papert, published a book called Perceptrons, which pointed out the flaws and limitations of neural networks. This publication influenced DARPA to withdraw its previous funding of AI projects.