The Rise And Rise Of IBM, Technology Hype And Fascination With Artificial Intelligence (AI)

A number of this week's milestones in the history of technology link the rise of IBM, the introduction of the ENIAC, and the renewed fascination with so-called artificial intelligence. "IBM" was first used for CTR's subsidiaries in Canada and South America, but after "several years of persuading a slow-moving board of directors," Thomas and Marva Belden note in The Lengthening Shadow, Thomas J. Watson Sr. succeeded in applying it to the entire company: "International to represent its big aspirations and Business Machines to evade the confines of the office appliance industry." As Kevin Maney observes in The Maverick and His Machine, IBM "was still an upstart little company" in 1924, when "revenues climbed to $11 million – not quite back to 1920 levels. The upstart, according to Watson, was going to live forever. From a talk he gave at the first meeting of IBM's Quarter Century Club (employees who have served the company for 25 years), on June 21, 1924: The opportunities of the future are bound to be greater than those of the past, and to the possibilities of this business there is no limit so long as it holds the loyal cooperation of men and women like yourselves.