Timeline: Humans vs computers

17 Jul 2012, 11:37 am
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Artificial intelligence is tipped to be a key shaper in the future of humanity, and some even predict the creation of a super intelligent computer in our lifetimes.

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Antiquity: Greek myths incorporated the idea of intelligent robots and artificial beings.

1623: The first mechanical calculating machine is created by Wilhelm Schickard.

1941: The first working program-controlled computer is built by Konrad Zuse.

1950: Issac Asimov, an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, published his Three Laws of Robotics.

1964: Danny Bobrow shows that computers can understand natural language well enough to solve algebra word problems correctly.

1965: Gordon Moore predicts that transistor density on integrated circuits would double every 12 months for the next ten years. (Prediction is revised in 1975 to doubling in 18 months and becomes known as Moore’s Law.)

1973: The Assembly Robotics Group at University of Edinburgh builds Freddy Robot, capable of using visual perception to locate and assemble models.

1976: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne build the Apple 1 with no case or power supply. The Apple Computer is born.

1979: The Stanford Cart becomes the first computer-controlled, autonomous vehicle when it successfully traverses a chair-filled room and circumnavigates the Stanford AI Lab.

1981: The IBM Personal Computer, also known as IBM PC is introduced.

1983: The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), tells a synthesizer when to start and stop playing a specific note, what sound that note should have, how loud it should be, and other information.

1997:  ‘Deep Blue’, the chess-playing computer developed by IBM beats the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. The machine won the second six-game match by two wins to one with three draws. 

1997: RoboCup-97, The First Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences, was held in Japan at the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 39 teams participated in the competition and drew over 5000 spectators.

1997: Kismet, the sociable robot is made at Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Dr. Cynthia Breazeal.

2000: Interactive robopets, known as “Smart toys” become commercially available.

2005:  Honda’s ASIMO robot, a humanoid robot, is able to walk as fast as a human and deliver trays to customers in restaurant settings.

2011: IBM’s Watson computer soundly defeated the two greatest Jeopardy! champions, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Watson received the first prize of $1 million. Watson, named after IBM’s first president, Thomas J. Watson, is capable of answering questions posed only in natural language.

2012: The state of Nevada becomes the first state in America to license a “driverless car.”

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