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    Ancient Ideas of Intelligent Machines

                     Ancient ideas of intelligent machines date back to early civilisations,
                     long before computers existed. In ancient times, people created
                     simple machines known as  automatons, which were powered
                     by water, gears and levers. These machines performed specific,
                     repetitive tasks but lacked the ability to learn or adapt based on
                     previous experiences. Despite not being truly "intelligent," these
                     creations laid the groundwork for later thinking about machines that

                     could think and make decisions.
                     One famous example is the mechanical water clock used by the

                     ancient Egyptians and Greeks. It relied on the flow of water to move
                     gears and levers, making it a practical device, though it was far from
                     being a thinking machine. While these machines weren’t capable of real
                     learning, they sparked the imagination of inventors.

                     Alan Turing and Machine Intelligence

                     Alan Turing played a pivotal role in the development of machine intelligence. In the 1940s, he
                     posed a fundamental question: Can machines think? This question became a cornerstone of
                     artificial intelligence research. Turing’s work explored the possibility that machines could be made
                     to simulate human thought processes.

                                                   One of his most  significant  contributions  was the Turing Test,
                                                   introduced  in  1950.  This test  proposed  a  method  for determining
                                                   whether    a    machine     could    exhibit   intelligent  behaviour
                                                   indistinguishable from that of a human. In the Turing Test, if a person

                                                   communicates with both a machine and a human without knowing
                                                   which is which and cannot reliably tell the difference, the machine
                                                   can be said to have demonstrated human-like intelligence.
                                                   Turing’s groundbreaking ideas  laid  the foundation for  modern  AI,

                                                   shaping the development of intelligent systems that are now used
                                                   in everything from search engines to self-driving cars. His vision of
                                                   machine intelligence continues to influence AI research today.

                     Birth of AI

                     The birth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be traced back to the 1950s, driven by the combined
                     efforts of mathematicians, computer scientists and visionaries like Alan Turing, John McCarthy
                     and Marvin Minsky. These early pioneers believed that machines could be developed to perform
                     tasks requiring human-like intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving and decision-making.

                     In 1956, the term Artificial Intelligence was coined by John McCarthy for the famous Dartmouth
                     Conference, which marked the official beginning of AI as a field of study.

                                                                               Introduction to AI & Everyday Examples  11

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