Is AI new?

June 18, 2023

Not at all. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for a long time. AI refers to computer hardware and software mimicking human intelligence. Recent innovations in the specific field of Generative AI such as ChatGPT are making many people believe that AI is a "new" thing. In fact, AI has been around for a long time, and can be said to be as old as the first programmable electronic computers of the 1930s. 

For more on the history of AI, and specifically for more about the history of Generative AI, check out this excellent article by TechTarget.com, What is Generative AI? Everything you need to know. 

The article above will give you a very good idea about the history of AI, and where we are going next with the technology. Below are some additional notes to spark a few thoughts.

The term "computer" was coined in the 1600s to describe a person making calculations and computations. The Yong Mans Gleanings, written by English writer Richard Braithwaite, and published in 1613, is credited with the first use of the term "computer". The poet used the term computer to describe a young man who was very good at math.  

    "What art thou (O Man) and from whence hadst thou thy beginning? What matter art thou made of, that thou promisest to thy selfe length of daies: or to thy posterity continuance. I haue read the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number: The daies of Man are threescore and ten."  https://howtospeakmachine.com/2019/02/24/first-use-of-the-word-computer/

In the mid to late 1700s, English men invented the first manufacturing machines that gave birth to the Industrial Revolution. Great Britain had opened itself to the innovation of science, and had liberated itself from the religious oppression of innovation (inquisition) prevalent in the rest of Europe. 

In the 1800s, in 1822, English man Charles Babbage invented the first mechanical computer, the Difference Engine. This machine used punch cards to represent digits (0 -9) used to transmit instructions. This was based on English machines that used punch cards to direct textile manufacturing.

In the 1900s, in 1945, Americans of English descent, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, developed the ENIAC, considered the first programmable electronic computer. A few years earlier, in 1932, French-Armenian inventor George Artsouni, had designed a machine to mechanically translate from English to French. In 1955s, American John McCarthy coined the term artificial intelligence (AI) to refer to electronic computers that could one day mimic human biological intelligence. 

In the 2000s, AI products are converting human input into human-like content. That is, with neural networks and the so-called generative AI applications, we are beginning to be able to communicate with computers using human language and obtaining results in improved human language expressions. We have entered into a new phase in the computer era or the information technology era. 

Good news is that we are super, super early in the process. This is the time for elementary school children to begin carving out careers in the AI field. The same applies to anyone contemplating a new career or a new business (entrepreneurial, management, or investing) career path. AI is it. Begin today.

Creatix.one, AI for everyone.

 past 78 years,