AI Is Older Than You Think

The term “artificial intelligence” didn’t enter the popular lexicon until fairly recently. But the concept goes back much further, and two Carnegie Mellon professors were among the first to bring it to life.

Historians generally believe that the concepts behind AI go back as far as Greek mythology, when Zeus commissioned the creation of Talos, a large autonomous robot tasked with defending the island of Crete. But the concept first came to fruition at Dartmouth College in 1956, when professors Herbert A. Simon and Allen Newell presented what is considered the first program to perform automated reasoning, known as Logic Theorist — and the birth of the AI industry.

Simon and Newell would go on to win an AM Turing Award, considered the highest accolade in computer science; Simon also won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1978. And the research would also cement CMU as a critical player in the history and advancement of artificial intelligence.