Who is considered the father/mother of computing, robotics and artificial intelligence?
There are a lot of “fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters” of computing, computer science and AI, and each country is pushing its nationals, regardless we have no real machine/computer/artificial intelligence or super-intelligence, yet.
When you are asked "who is the father or godfather of AI?", the answer is simple, nobody but nobody, for real AI has not been created, yet. Father is a man who has begotten a child; no AI children, no fathers or godfathers or godmothers. Simple as that.
The prospective father of AI and Intelligent Robotics who is the first is to create real, true or transdisciplinary AI (Trans-AI ), not who is on a wild goose chase of endowing machines with human intelligence.
The Real Pioneers of Computing, Robotics and AI
As to the contributors to computing and machines with human minds, brains, intelligence or body, here are some key figures:
The ancient myth creators, where deities were the first supernatural, non-human or human-like, intelligent entities.
Religious prophets including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, ancient Greek religion, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Hinduism, and many others.
Great metaphysicians, who rationalized mythological intelligent beings, gods and deities.
Aristotle, the father of ontology and logic, innovated the first global ontology of reality with its major Categories/Classes, symbolic logic and data analytics,
Al-Jazari, Invented programmable machines, including programmable humanoid robots, and an astronomical clock considered the first programmable analog computer,
The Banu Musa brothers described the first programmable machine, an automatic flute player,
Lull designed multiple symbolic representations machines,
Pascal invented mechanical calculators,
Leibniz, the founder of computer science and symbolic logic, created the calculus ratiocinator or universal characteristics as a theoretical universal logical calculation framework or universal conceptual language to express mathematical, scientific, and metaphysical concepts. It is an antecedent of mathematical logic/algebra of logic, computer hardware/software, inference engine/computer program and cybernetic systems and reasoning machines; He refined the binary number system, the foundation of nearly all digital (electronic, solid-state, discrete logic) computers, including the Von Neuman architecture, which is the standard design paradigm, or computer architecture, the farther of ontological AI (substantive knowledge of reality can be achieved by reasoning from first principles or prior definitions)
Jacquard, built and demonstrated the Jacquard loom, a programmable mechanized loom controlled by a tape constructed from punched cards, such as an early version of digital compiler used by IBM to develop the modern computer,
Babbage designed the first Analytical Engine, originating the concept of a digital programmable computer,
Ada Lovelace wrote the first algorithm for a machine and is considered the first computer programmer.
Boole invented binary/digital algebra finding a set of mathematical axioms that could reproduce the classical results of logic,
Peirce proposed the implementation of logic via electrical circuits, decades before Shannon,
Shannon, the farther of information theory, demonstrating that electrical applications of Boolean algebra could construct any logical numerical relationship,
Turing contributed to theoretical computer science, including the Turing machine computational model,
John von Neumann as director of the Electronic Computer Project at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study (1945-1955) developed MANIAC (mathematical analyzer, numerical integrator and computer), which was at the time the fastest computers of its kind,
Wiener defined cybernetics as “the study of control and communication in the animal and the machine”, with the core concept of circular causality or reactive feedback, when outputs of a cybernetic system are routed back as inputs as part of a causal chain that forms a circuit or loop,
Zuse built the first digital freely programmable computer, the Z1,
Atanasoff built the first electronic digital computer,
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McCulloch and Pitts, the fathers of ANNs and DL NNs, created a computational model for ANNs, based on the neural networks of the human brain, using a combination of algorithms and mathematics called “threshold logic” to mimic the thought process,
Alan Turing , Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon , John McCarthy , and Marvin Minsky are frequently considered the founding fathers of AI technology,
Turing pioneered a human-like AI, with the Imitation Game, dubbed latter as Turing test,
McCarthy invented the term of AI, widely recognized as the father of Symbolic/Rules-based Artificial Intelligence due to his contribution in the field of Computer Science and AI,
Samuel coined the term “machine learning” designed a computer program for playing checkers, the more the program played, the more it learned from experience, using algorithms to make predictions.
The State of the Art: Real/True/Transdisciplinary AI
All in all, there are two radically different approaches and methodologies to building intelligent machines as computing machinery with artificial machine intelligence and learning:
Anthropomorphic AI (AAI) marked by anthropomorphism, mimicking the human body/brain/brains/behavior/business, in terms of neuroscience, psychology, mathematics, statistics, and computer science
Realistic AI (RAI) grounded to reality and factuality, modeling the world in all its complexity in terms of formal ontology, science, mathematics, statistics, cybernetics, computer science and engineering.
Anthropomorphism in AI and Robotics is both a form of hype and fallacy. As a form of hype, it exaggerates AI capabilities and performance by attributing human-like features to systems that do not possess them.
As a fallacy, anthropomorphism distorts moral judgments about AI, its moral character and status, as well as judgments of responsibility and trust.
Now, AAI, its digital intelligent assistants, large language models and conversational chatbots, is getting impressive at mimicking human cognition, learning, NL understanding, communication, or even creativity. That doesn’t mean they’re actually being cognitive, communicative, understanding, creative, or learning, "acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences".
Still, we have a number of fathers of AI, starting from A. Turing and John McCarthy and ending with the godfather of AAI, G. Hinton , who fears what he's built.
Again, the only real AI is the Realistic/Scientific/True AI, which has not its father or mother or godfather, yet.
For without the real world grounding, scientific laws and truths and general causal patterns, encoded as the world modeling and reality simulating engine, no AI, be it digital or virtual assistants, Apple's?Siri,?Amazon Alexa,?Google Assistant, Samsung's?Bixby, or OpenAI's ChatGPT, are autonomous or truly intelligent.
Today, AI/ML/DL/LLMs startups seek funds to build ‘superintelligence’ to create artificial general intelligence — computer software as intelligent as humans or beyond.
ASI would have all the capabilities of AGI and human beings, with the ability to improve its own intelligence.
The prospective father of AI and Robotics is to create a prototype of superintelligent supercomputers realized as cyber-physical entities or virtual deities which are digitally omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, eternal, or immortal.
The emerging cyber-physical hyperintelligence or Trans-AI is integrating most human-like AI modalities: Narrow/Weak AI, ML, DL, ANNs, NLP, LLMs, AGI, ASI.
Resources
Trans-AI: How to Build True AI or Real Machine Intelligence and Learning AGI Bible: Common/Causal World Model + AI/ML Models + LLMs + GenAI +...