A Narrative History of Artificial Intelligence: The Perpetual Frontier of Information Technology

This book addresses the history of artificial intelligence through the author’s experiences from the 1960s, when AI was a dream to give computers far more power than the progress for industrial technological advancement. The book starts from the AI pioneering days including what the author witnessed and impressed, then the episodes during AI boom of the 80s and 90s when the author was involved in ANSI X3J13 committee work as a principal member, translating Common Lisp books into Japanese, leading committee works in Japan for global standardization, and visiting MIT AI Lab for totally three years. The book points out that neural network research started in the 1980s, highlighting the DARPA report dated in 1988. The last episodes and thoughts include the experiences with business school students after the author moved from engineering school. The former half is from a view of an engineering mind and then the latter is based on how the author struggled with business-minded people to explain the core of AI.

This book is suitable for anyone interested in the history of Artificial Intelligence. The content is easy to follow, even for readers without prior knowledge of AI. Experts will also find something new and thought-provoking.

Masayuki Ida has been a professor emeritus at Aoyama Gakuin University since April 2020, working for three fields as an independent consultant: digitalization of organizations, school management, and contract-based intensive class lecturer. His works are for worldwide universities/high schools and companies reflecting his 50-year career from programming in Python to corporate e-commerce systems design. He received Ph.D. in March 1981 after he started in software science field in the late 1960s in his high school days; then in parallel, he started his career in the fields for information systems and the AI and Lisp as a student. His principle is on the diffusion and penetration of smart IT into everyday life through applied AI and cross-cultural communication.