Artificial intelligence (AI) is a popular topic at the moment, but it is so much further reaching than ChatGPT. AI has the potential to make a profound impact on our lives. In fact it already has a place in many of our daily lives. It decides what we are shown on social media and streaming sites, informs healthcare professionals, and even speaks to us through voice assistants. Forbes made a list of some of the ways we interact with AI daily. Ahead of our webinar ‘Artificial Intelligence: The Changing Business Landscape’ (register here), we are looking at the topic of AI in depth, starting with this blog on how AI has developed over the years.
The Beginning
What many consider to be the first AI programme is the Logic Theorist. Written in 1956 by Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon and Cliff Shaw, the Logic Theorist was capable of automated reasoning to mimic human problem-solving skills. When created, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ wasn’t even in use yet. It was first introduced at the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence (DSRPAI).
The Development of AI
A significant contributing factor the development of AI is computers becoming faster and cheaper. To work on developing AI a computer is essential. But in the early 1950s this was hindered by the price of computers, when just leasing a computer for a month cost up to $200,000 (Anyoha, 2017). Limited computer storage and speed were also a significant hinderance.
Nowadays most of us have a comparatively powerful computer on us at all times – our mobile phones. Such development in computing ability has enabled the greater exploration of AI.
AI Now
With improvements to computing technology clearing the way for development, AI has burst through as the technology wave of the future. From healthcare to finance to personal devices, AI is being incorporated into more and more industries.
Current AI developments include Adversarial AI, Explainable AI and Large Language Models (LLM) – a current popular LLM being ChatGPT.
An interesting area of AI is AI for Social Good. Rather than a form of AI, AI for Social Good is a concept. It is using AI to better society and keep in consideration and work to limit its negative impacts.
These AI developments and more are explained in our blog AI in Business: What AI Can Do in 2023.
The Future of AI
With the development of AI accelerating, the future of AI is open. The effects AI will have on our society cannot be said for certain. Our technical capabilities, job roles, research and daily tasks could change in major ways. In healthcare, for example, AI is making major strides in detection. Our AI in Healthcare blog covers this in greater depth.
Conclusion
While we may know how AI has developed, its future is unknown. It could be that AI is the catalyst for the third major transformation, following the agricultural and industrial revolutions to change our society.
If you want to read more about how AI could impact our future, take a look at our The Future of Software Development blog where three of our software engineers predicted what could happen in the next 1-100 years.
