Preface
A Brief History of Machine Learning
Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) in which computers learn from data—usually to improve their performance on some narrowly defined task—without being explicitly programmed. The term machine learning was coined as early as 1959 (by Arthur Samuel, a legend in the field of AI), but there were few major commercial successes in machine learning during the twenty-first century. Instead, the field remained a niche research area for academics at universities.
Early on (in the 1960s) many in the AI community were too optimistic about its future. Researchers at the time, such as Herbert Simon and Marvin Minsky, claimed that AI would reach human-level intelligence within a matter of decades:1
Machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do.
Herbert Simon, 1965
From three to eight years, we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being.
Marvin Minsky, 1970
Blinded by their optimism, researchers focused on so-called strong AI or general artificial intelligence (AGI) projects, attempting to build AI agents capable of problem solving, knowledge representation, learning and planning, natural language processing, perception, and motor control. This optimism helped attract significant funding into the nascent field from major players such as the Department of Defense, but the problems these researchers tackled were too ambitious and ultimately doomed to fail. ...