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The Past, Present, and Future of AI

Follow AI across time, from the Industrial Revolution & early automation to electronic computers, Deep Blue, AlphaGo, & today’s large language models. What does this history suggest about AI’s future?

What does it mean for a machine to possess autonomous intelligence? This talk begins by establishing a clear framework for understanding AI as the latest chapter in humanity's long relationship with intelligent automation.

We'll trace the arc of technological progress from its earliest foundations. With the Industrial Revolution, mechanization transformed labor and introduced early debates about efficiency, displacement, and expertise. The invention of the electronic computer in the mid-20th century represented another watershed moment, enabling us to automate not just muscle, but calculation and logic.

The journey continues through pivotal moments that captured the world's imagination: IBM's Deep Blue defeating world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, demonstrating that machines could master domains once thought to require uniquely human strategic thinking. Then DeepMind's AlphaGo conquering the ancient game of Go in 2016, using neural networks to develop intuition and creativity in ways that surprised even its creators. Today, we stand at another inflection point with large language models—AI systems that can understand and generate human language with remarkable fluency. These models represent a fundamental shift in how we interact with machines and what we can ask them to do. By understanding this historical progression, we can ask, "Where is autonomous intelligence heading? What opportunities and challenges await?"

Speaker Bio

David J. Staley, Ph.D., is a writer, designer, futurist, historiographer, presenter, educator, advisor, and public intellectual, and was recently described as an "eclectic academic." He is an Associate Professor in the departments of History and Design at The Ohio State University, and is the author of several books, including The AI Symposium; Anticipatory Biographies: Personal Histories of the Future; Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education; Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets; and Visionary Histories, a collection of his essays about the future. He is the host of the "Voices of Excellence" podcast, and president of Columbus Futurists, a local think tank. In 2022, he was awarded "Best Freelance Writer" by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for his "Next" futures column with Columbus Underground.

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