The history of AI

A short tour of artificial intelligence from its beginnings to today.

A glowing path runs through a vacuum tube, a punched card, a microchip and a neural network

Why this story matters

Artificial intelligence began as a bold idea in the 1940s and 1950s: that a machine might one day learn, reason and talk. The path since has been uneven, with bursts of excitement, long quiet stretches known as "AI winters", and a sudden acceleration in the 2010s when more data, faster chips and better methods came together.

This site walks through that story in four short pages.

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Timeline: the key moments, from the 1940s to now.
People: the researchers who shaped the field.
Breakthroughs: the ideas and systems that changed what was possible.
Today: what AI does well, where it falls short, and what is still unknown.