Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Brief History of AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is usually defined as the science and engineering of
imitating, extending and augmenting human intelligence through artificial means
and techniques to make intelligent machines. In 2005, John McCarthy pointed
out that the long-term goal of AI is human-level AI (McCarthy, 2005).
In the history of human development, it is a never-ending pursuit to free
people from both manual and mental labor with machines. The industrial
revolutions enable machines to perform heavy manual labor instead of people,
and thus lead to a considerable economic and social progress. To make machines
help relieve mental labor, a long cherished aspiration is to create and make use of
intelligent machines like human beings.
In ancient China, many mechanical devices and tools have been invented to
help accomplish mental tasks. The abacus was the most widely used classical
calculator. The Water-powered Armillary Sphere and Celestial Globe Tower is
used for astronomical observation and stellar analysis. The Houfeng
Seismograph is an ancient seismometer to detect and record tremors and
earthquakes. The traditional Chinese theory of Yin and Yang reveals the
philosophy of opposition, interrelation and transformation, having an important
impact on modern logics.
In the world, Aristotle (384-322, BC) proposed the first formal deductive
reasoning system, syllogistic logic, in the Organon. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
established the inductive method in the Novum Organun (or “New Organon”).
Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) constructed the first mechanical calculator capable
of multiplication and division. He also enunciated the concepts of
“characteristica universalis” and “calculus ratiocinator” to treat the operations of
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