The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) can be traced back to antiquity, with stories of artificially created beings in mythologies of various cultures. However, the modern era of AI began in the mid-20th century, with the development of digital computers and the birth of the field of computer science.

The term “artificial intelligence” was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon at the Dartmouth Conference, which is considered to be the birthplace of AI as a field of study. The first AI program was written in 1951 by Christopher Strachey, who created a checkers-playing program on the Ferranti Mark I computer.

Since then, AI has undergone significant advancements, from rule-based systems and expert systems in the 1970s and 1980s to the current era of machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks. AI is now an integral part of many industries, from education, healthcare and finance to transportation and entertainment.

However, in 1992 when Handmade AI got fully matured and myriads of games and smart devices came around in the year of birth of modern day AI. This is also considered the first generation of AI (not to be confused with computer generations). Statistical Learning AI is how we name the second generation of AI. SLAI industrial models got matured and massively adopted starting 1997 and are very much working with/in place of humans to date.

Humanoid robots were perceived 70 years ago powered with AI and advanced enough to make decisions on their own, although unconscious but capable of thinking and behaving like real humans. Thousands of versions were made during last century to realize the dream. However, after six decades it was realized in 2016 when the first real AI embodiment was achieved in the shape of Sophia which really acted and behaved like humans and was super intelligent. Third generation of AI also took gaming, robotics and virtual reality to the next level where augmented reality and then Metaverse were perceived. Top games like PUBg, GTA and Freefire are all first products of this era. This is the third generation of AI and is named as explainability and generative AI model.

By Prof. Ahmad Bilal Khan