The Intelligence Age: A History of AI

From ancient automata to modern neural networks — the story of thinking machines

75 Milestones
700+ Years of history
∞ Growing daily

Marvin Minsky

Cognitive and computer science

  • Co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory.
  • Contributed to the theory of neural networks.
  • Author of influential works on AI and human cognition.

Marvin Minsky was a pioneering American mathematician and cognitive scientist known for his foundational work in artificial intelligence and robotics.

Milestones

  • 1951
    The Theoretical Foundations Engineering
    The Rat Brain Built from Bomber Parts

    Two Princeton graduate students wired together 3,000 vacuum tubes and surplus autopilot components from B-24 bombers to build the first machine that learned like a network of neurons.

    1951
  • The Summer That Named a Revolution
    The Dawn of AI Research
    The Summer That Named a Revolution

    A small workshop at Dartmouth College coined the term 'artificial intelligence' and launched an entire field of research.

    1956
  • The Book That Killed Neural Networks
    The Dawn of AI Research
    The Book That Killed Neural Networks

    Minsky and Papert's rigorous mathematical critique of perceptrons convinced a generation of researchers to abandon neural networks, triggering a funding drought that lasted over a decade.

    1969
  • The Society Inside Your Head
    Expert Systems and the Knowledge Boom Philosophy
    The Society Inside Your Head

    Marvin Minsky proposed that intelligence isn't one thing but a society of tiny mindless agents, reshaping how researchers thought about building thinking machines.

    1986
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