Is AI A New Thing?

There has been so much discussion and attention recently about Artificial Intelligence (AI) you would think it is very new, but it has been decades in the making. I am dating myself, but I was exposed to AI when I was at Louisiana State University in the 1980s. I was an Electrical Engineering major with a minor in Mathematics and professors in both departments were actively engaged in AI research and development. Linear Algebra forms the foundation of the computational mechanism in AI and I enjoyed 3 or 4 of those classes. One of my math professors, that had worked with J. Robert Oppenheimer, taught the first Linear Algebra class of its kind in the country. I wish I could remember his name...

The era of modern AI began in 1956 at a 2-month summer workshop organized at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire by John McCarthy. The workshop's purpose was to investigate ways machines could be made to simulate human intelligence. McCarthy is thus credited with the creation of the term “Artificial Intelligence.”

A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence.

You should really take a few minutes and look at that August 1955 proposal for the following summer. Imagine asking for $13,500 for 2 months of salaries and upkeep for 6 top scientists, 2 graduate assistants and all their traveling expenses. Then look at this quote from the proposal: “An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.” This was 69 years ago and look how prophetic that one sentence is!

While we can certainly go through the major breakthroughs in AI from that summer of 1956 till today, it is important to note that AI has been in development and use for quite some time. It has now made its way into business applications and is totally transforming financial departments, sales teams, manufacturing processes, et al. And we don’t have to know much about the details and inner workings of AI to see its promise.

There are many fully developed AI offerings now in widespread use including Autonomous Accounts Payable solutions, Audit Automation Platforms and Profitability Analysis Tools. And the speed at which fresh solutions are released will increase. Executives and Business Owners have much to gain by reviewing the options to determine if any of them will help transform their company. Please let me know if you would like any help.

All the best,

Chris Carrigee, PE, CPA