In 1770, Wolfgang Van Kemplin had a great idea.

He wanted to impress the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.

So of course, he built a giant chess playing computer, an automaton that could beat some of the best chess players in the world.

It was such a hit, he took it on the road. He beat Napoleon Bonaparte.

He beat Ben Franklin.

This mechanical device, about the size of your kitchen table could confront a decent chess player and beat them with the pieces mysteriously moving on their own as if by remote control.

It was a miracle.

But in the words of the great Arthur C. Clark, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Hey, it's Seth.

And this is a Kimbo. For Magic, you ask?

Well, yeah, in 1770, it was impossible to build an automaton that would do much of anything, certainly one that

would magically beat really good chess players.

In fact, what was going on was hidden inside the device was a chess master who from underneath

the table was using magnets to move the pieces above.

But from this auspicious start,

we began our journey into creating artificial intelligence.

In 1978, researchers at Stanford came up with an expert system called Mycen.

What it could do was take a list of symptoms that someone had if they had

possible blood infections and using those symptoms come up with a diagnosis and a plan for treatment. This computer system got the right

answer about 65% of the time, while doctors who were at the top of their field usually got it right about 45% of the time.

So as early as 40 years ago, expert systems were better than experts. Back to this idea from Arthur C. Clark.

Artificial intelligence, the idea that a computer can become smart also makes good fiction.

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