Req 2e — AI Timeline

The history of artificial intelligence is a story of big dreams, long winters, and explosive breakthroughs. Understanding where AI came from helps you appreciate how far the technology has come — and where it might be headed.

For this requirement, you need to pick five milestones and present them as a timeline. Below, you will find many more than five so you have plenty to choose from. Pick the ones that interest you the most or that you think tell the best story of how AI evolved.

Major Milestones in AI History

1950 — Alan Turing Asks “Can Machines Think?”

British mathematician Alan Turing published a groundbreaking paper called “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” In it, he proposed what we now call the Turing Test: if a machine can carry on a conversation so well that a human judge cannot tell whether they are talking to a person or a machine, then the machine can be considered “intelligent.” This paper laid the philosophical foundation for the entire field.

1956 — The Birth of AI at Dartmouth

A group of researchers gathered at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire for a summer workshop. They believed that “every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.” At this workshop, the term “artificial intelligence” was officially coined. The field had a name — and a mission.

1966 — ELIZA, the First Chatbot

MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum created ELIZA, a program that could hold a text-based conversation by mimicking a therapist. ELIZA did not understand language — it used pattern matching to turn your statements into questions. But it was so convincing that some people believed they were talking to a real therapist. ELIZA showed both the potential and the dangers of making machines seem human.

1974–1993 — The AI Winters

Twice in AI’s history, excitement gave way to disappointment when the technology failed to deliver on its grand promises. Funding dried up, projects were abandoned, and researchers moved to other fields. These periods — roughly 1974–1980 and 1987–1993 — are called the “AI Winters.” They remind us that progress in technology is rarely a straight line.

1997 — Deep Blue Defeats a World Chess Champion

IBM’s Deep Blue computer defeated reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match. It was the first time a computer beat a world champion under standard tournament conditions. The event made global headlines and proved that machines could outperform humans at complex strategic tasks.

2011 — Watson Wins Jeopardy!

IBM Watson competed on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! against two of the show’s greatest human champions — Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter — and won. Unlike chess, Jeopardy! requires understanding puns, wordplay, and general knowledge. Watson’s victory showed that AI could handle the messy, ambiguous nature of human language.

2012 — The Deep Learning Revolution

A neural network called AlexNet won the ImageNet competition by a huge margin, dramatically outperforming traditional methods at identifying objects in photographs. This event kicked off the deep learning revolution — a period of rapid AI advancement powered by large neural networks and massive datasets. Nearly every modern AI breakthrough traces back to this moment.

2016 — AlphaGo Masters the “Unbeatable” Game

Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo defeated world champion Lee Sedol at the board game Go — a game with more possible positions than atoms in the universe. Experts had predicted that AI would not master Go for at least another decade. AlphaGo did not just play well; it made creative, unexpected moves that stunned professional players.

2022 — ChatGPT Changes Everything

In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public. It could write essays, answer questions, generate code, and hold remarkably human-like conversations. Within two months, it reached 100 million users — the fastest-growing consumer application in history. ChatGPT brought generative AI into the mainstream and sparked a worldwide conversation about how AI will reshape society.

2023–Present — The Age of AI Everywhere

Following ChatGPT’s release, AI capabilities exploded. Image generators, video creators, coding assistants, and AI-powered search engines became everyday tools. Governments around the world began drafting AI regulations. The European Union passed the AI Act, the first comprehensive AI law. AI moved from a niche technology topic to the front page of every newspaper.

Building Your Timeline

Your timeline needs five milestones. Here are some tips for making it great: