IBM
5 milestones · 1952–2011
Explore IBM's role in AI history across 5 milestones from 1952 to 2011, with the strongest concentration in research breakthroughs.
Chronology
Samuel's Checkers Program
Arthur Samuel created a checkers-playing program at IBM that could learn from experience, improving its play over time. He coined the term 'machine learning' to describe programs that learn without being explicitly programmed.
The Dartmouth Conference
A two-month workshop at Dartmouth College where the term 'Artificial Intelligence' was officially coined. The proposal stated: '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.' This gathering brought together the founders of the field.
TD-Gammon: Reinforcement Learning Plays Backgammon
Gerald Tesauro created TD-Gammon, a neural network that learned to play backgammon at expert level through self-play using temporal difference reinforcement learning. It discovered novel strategies that surprised human experts.
Deep Blue Defeats Kasparov
IBM's Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match (3.5-2.5). It was the first time a reigning world champion lost a match to a computer under standard tournament conditions. Deep Blue evaluated 200 million positions per second using brute-force search and hand-crafted evaluation.
IBM Watson Wins Jeopardy!
IBM's Watson system defeated the two greatest Jeopardy! champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in a televised match. Watson used natural language processing, information retrieval, and machine learning to understand nuanced questions with puns and wordplay.