From Imitation Games To The Real Thing: A Brief History Of Machine Learning

Hephaestus, the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking and carpenters, was said to have fashioned artificial beings in the form of golden robots. Myth finally moved toward truth in the 20th century, as AI developed in series of fits and starts, finally gaining major momentum--and reaching a tipping point--by the turn of the millennium. Here's how the modern history of AI and ML unfolded, starting in the years just following World War II. In 1950, while working at the University of Manchester, legendary code breaker Alan Turing (subject of the 2014 movie The Imitation Game) released a paper titled "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." It became famous for positing what became known as the "Turing test."