Answers.Body: <p>What might be classed as AI has of course changed over the years, but landmarks and research breakthroughs include:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Babbagge's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine" rel="nofollow">Difference Engine</a> (~1823) for tabulating/interpolating polynomials.</li>
  <li>Frank Rosenblatt's 1957 invention of the <a href="http://blogs.umass.edu/brain-wars/files/2016/03/rosenblatt-1957.pdf" rel="nofollow">Perceptron</a>.</li>
  <li><p>John McCarthy's invention of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_(programming_language)" rel="nofollow">Lisp</a> in the late 1950s.</p></li>
  <li><p>Arthur Samuel's 1959 <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-30668-1_9" rel="nofollow">checkers player</a>, which famously improved by playing against itself (it would have been nice if that had destroyed the myth about a program only being as 'intelligent' as its creator).</p></li>
  <li><p>Newell and Simon's 1959 <a href="http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/rand/ipl/P-1584_Report_On_A_General_Problem-Solving_Program_Feb59.pdf" rel="nofollow">General Problem Solver</a> applied Means-Ends analysis to solve a range of problems expressed as Horn clauses.</p></li>
  <li><p>Davis, Putnam et al: 1962 invention of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DPLL_algorithm" rel="nofollow">DPLL algorithm</a> which still forms the core of modern SAT-based theorem provers.</p></li>
  <li><p>Lawrence Fogel et al: 1966 book <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B0000CNARU" rel="nofollow">Artificial Intelligence through Simulated Evolution</a>.</p></li>
  <li><p>Rechenberg and Schwefel: 1960s development of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_strategy" rel="nofollow">Evolutionsstrategie</a> - an Evolutionary Computation approach using mutation and a form of Darwinian 'survival of the fittest'.</p></li>
  <li><p>Lotfi Zadeh's 1965 invention of <a href="https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~zadeh/papers/Fuzzy%20Sets-Information%20and%20Control-1965.pdf" rel="nofollow">Fuzzy Logic</a>.</p></li>
  <li><p>John Holland's 1975 book <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=531075" rel="nofollow">"Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems"</a> which introduced Genetic Algorithms.</p></li>
  <li><p>The 1980 <a href="http://aitopics.org/sites/default/files/classic/Webber-Nilsson-Readings/Rdgs-NW-Erman-Hayes-Roth-Lesser-Reddy.pdf" rel="nofollow">Hearsay II</a> Blackboard Architecture by Hayes-Roth et al.</p></li>
  <li><p>The 1980s invention of the <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=104293" rel="nofollow">backpropagation algorithm</a> for Mutlilayer Perceptrons by Rumelhart, Hinton et al.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
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Answers.Text: Flying a bit under the radar, but nonetheless relevant, (you know, neural networks, improving by self-play, introduces completely new strategies, etc.): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD-Gammon
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Body: <p>What were the first areas of research into Artificial Intelligence and what were some early successes?  More recently we've had:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Beating a human at the game of chess</li>
  <li>Convincing a human that a person was conversing with them (passing the Turing test)</li>
  <li>Beating a human at Jeopardy game show</li>
  <li>Beating a human at the game of go.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Were there milestones that were considered major in the field before the 1990s?</p>
  
Tags: <history>
Title: What were the first areas of research and what were some early successes?
UserDisplayName: WilliamKF
ThreadText: # What were the first areas of research and what were some early successes?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2016-08-02)
  
  What were the first areas of research into Artificial Intelligence and what were some early successes? More recently we've had:
  
  1. Beating a human at the game of chess
  2. Convincing a human that a person was conversing with them (passing the Turing test)
  3. Beating a human at Jeopardy game show
  4. Beating a human at the game of go.
  
  Were there milestones that were considered major in the field before the 1990s?
  
  **Tags:** history
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2016-08-04. Score: 4
  
  What might be classed as AI has of course changed over the years, but landmarks and research breakthroughs include:
  
  * Babbagge's [Difference Engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine) (~1823) for tabulating/interpolating polynomials.
  * Frank Rosenblatt's 1957 invention of the [Perceptron](http://blogs.umass.edu/brain-wars/files/2016/03/rosenblatt-1957.pdf).
  * John McCarthy's invention of [Lisp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_(programming_language)) in the late 1950s.
  * Arthur Samuel's 1959 [checkers player](http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-30668-1_9), which famously improved by playing against itself (it would have been nice if that had destroyed the myth about a program only being as 'intelligent' as its creator).
  * Newell and Simon's 1959 [General Problem Solver](http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/rand/ipl/P-1584_Report_On_A_General_Problem-Solving_Program_Feb59.pdf) applied Means-Ends analysis to solve a range of problems expressed as Horn clauses.
  * Davis, Putnam et al: 1962 invention of the [DPLL algorithm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DPLL_algorithm) which still forms the core of modern SAT-based theorem provers.
  * Lawrence Fogel et al: 1966 book [Artificial Intelligence through Simulated Evolution](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B0000CNARU).
  * Rechenberg and Schwefel: 1960s development of [Evolutionsstrategie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_strategy) - an Evolutionary Computation approach using mutation and a form of Darwinian 'survival of the fittest'.
  * Lotfi Zadeh's 1965 invention of [Fuzzy Logic](https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~zadeh/papers/Fuzzy%20Sets-Information%20and%20Control-1965.pdf).
  * John Holland's 1975 book ["Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems"](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=531075) which introduced Genetic Algorithms.
  * The 1980 [Hearsay II](http://aitopics.org/sites/default/files/classic/Webber-Nilsson-Readings/Rdgs-NW-Erman-Hayes-Roth-Lesser-Reddy.pdf) Blackboard Architecture by Hayes-Roth et al.
  * The 1980s invention of the [backpropagation algorithm](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=104293) for Mutlilayer Perceptrons by Rumelhart, Hinton et al.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: Flying a bit under the radar, but nonetheless relevant, (you know, neural networks, improving by self-play, introduces completely new strategies, etc.): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD-Gammon  
  
  ---
  
  