Artificial Intelligence (AI): Past, Present, and Future

Professor MOHAN, C.

Ever since the conduct of the historically famous 1956 Dartmouth Summer Workshop, which has come to be regarded as the birthplace of the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), significant amount of progress has been made in AI with intermittent periods of intense activity. Topics of focus for research and development have varied over the last 6 decades. Unfortunately, during that time, many promises and disappointments have also been associated with AI. Developments in related areas of computer science (e.g., hardware and big data) have also been significantly responsible for the recent renewed momentum behind AI. As progress is made, while numerous benefits of AI are anticipated, many apprehensions have also arisen with respect to the societal impact of AI. Of late, there is also the widespread tendency to equate AI to just machine learning and that is incorrect! Even more recently, ChatGPT and similar systems based on Large Language Models (LLMs) have become topics of intense speculation.  In this talk, first I will survey some of the historical AI developments and then focus on the current areas of investigations across academia and industry. Then, I will briefly touch on the remaining areas of exploration for more positive outcomes to emerge from the adoption of AI technologies in major segments of society at large. Some of the ongoing work in my former workplace, IBM, will also be discussed. Both software and hardware developments will be covered. I will also briefly touch upon on-going AI work in Asia (e.g., China, India), Europe and USA. Even people outside of computer science will be able to appreciate this talk.