Generative AI – When it started
The concept of AI goes back historically to automatons that automatically perform actions such as praying with Gianello della Torre's Clockwork Prayer. To see images and how it worked, visit https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_855351
John McCarthy organized the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence for mathematicians and scientists to clarify and develop ideas about thinking machines. He coined the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and workshop participants went on to develop foundational concepts of modern AI such as symbolic methods and inductive systems.
One of the first chatbots was called ELIZA with pre-written responses and formats in 1966:
https://redirect.cs.umbc.edu/courses/331/papers/eliza.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20110425191843/http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/4-2/text/dialogues.htm
OpenAI released preliminary papers on the principles of generative AI models like Dall E and ChatGPT in 2016 before releasing to the public in 2022:
https://openai.com/research/generative-models
Further reading on the history of AI:
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/history-artificial-intelligence/
Generative AI – When it became popular
ChatGPT for generating text
Since becoming open to the public in November 2022, ChatGPT has become popular, reaching 100 million active users in January 2023.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/
Key factors driving ChatGPT’s popularity include:
- Easy of User Interface for anyone to understand and dive straight into using ChatGPT
- Versatile and robust AI for a wide variety of use cases
- Free versions available
Dall-E for generating images
Dall-E itself has also become popular since becoming available to the public in September 2022
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/history-artificial-intelligence/
