Father of AI

History of Artificial Intelligence

The evolution of AI from 1950s foundations to modern language models

The history of artificial intelligence is not a straight climb. It is a series of overlapping waves, each carried forward by a different bet about how intelligence ought to be built — and each cresting, breaking, and pulling back when the results fell short of the promises.

Essential reading

  • John McCarthy — John McCarthy (1927–2011): the scientist who coined 'artificial intelligence,' organized the 1956 Dartmouth conference, and created LISP.
  • Evolution & Timeline — A decade-by-decade history of AI: 1950s foundations, symbolic AI, expert systems, machine learning, deep learning, and modern LLMs.
  • Benefits — Where AI has produced measurable value: automation, medical imaging, large-scale data analysis, adaptive education, and scientific research.
  • Harms and Risks — Documented harms of AI: job displacement, dataset bias, lack of interpretability, surveillance misuse, deepfakes, and overdependence.
  • Philosophy — The philosophy of AI: symbolic versus data-driven intelligence, the limits of today's systems, and whether machines can truly understand.
  • Conclusion — What the record shows: AI has evolved over decades through incremental progress, and its genuine benefits and genuine risks must be weighed together.

Key topics

AI timeline

1950
Alan Turing proposes the imitation game (Turing test).
1955
John McCarthy coins "artificial intelligence" in the Dartmouth proposal.
1956
Dartmouth conference — AI becomes a formal field.
1958
McCarthy creates LISP.
1966–1974
First AI winter — promises outpace results.
1980s
Expert systems boom, then second winter.
1997
IBM Deep Blue beats Garry Kasparov.
2012
AlexNet — deep learning revolution begins.
2017
Transformer architecture published.
2020s
Large language models reach the general public.

Back to Father of AI →