Who is the father of AI? 

While AI was popularized during the OpenAI era of 2018, its roots stretch back to the 1920s. The history of AI is divided into many eras, starting from the groundwork in 1920 and the birth of AI in 1956 which created a base for what we have today.

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence (AI)  is a technology that enables computers to simulate human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities on their own or combine them with other technologies. 

The beginnings of AI 

Karel Čapek 

It all began in the early 1900s, as the concept of artificial humans emerged and scientists started to question if it is possible to create artificial intelligence or what they referred to as “artificial brain”. 

The term “artificial people” was first used in 1921 by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek in a science fiction play named “Rossum’s Universal Robots”,  where the concept of artificial people was introduced for robots. 

The father of artificial intelligence 

One of the greatest innovators in the field of AI was John McCarthy who got the title of Father of Artificial Intelligence for his contribution to the field of Computer Science and AI. 

John McCarthy used the term Artificial Intelligence for the first time in 1956 when he organized the Dartmouth Conference, which is considered the birth of AI as a field of study.

Who was John McCarthy?

John McCarthy (1927–2011), an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist, often hailed as the "father of artificial intelligence" (AI), made significant contributions to both AI and computer science.

One of McCarthy's most notable contributions to computer science is the development of the programming language LISP (List Processing), which was specifically designed for AI research and became one of the most important languages in the field. He also proposed the concept of time-sharing in computers, which laid the groundwork for modern interactive computing.