12. The AI Winter
"The AI Winter: A History of Overhyped Promises and Limitations" Table of Contents Back in the 1970s and 1980s, scientists were trying to make computers think and learn like humans. They called this artificial intelligence (AI) research. But they faced some big challenges, and it didn't go very smoothly. They called this difficult time the AI winter. One of the reasons for the AI winter was that the early computer programs they made for AI were too simple. Scientists thought these programs could do things that only humans could do, like understand language, solve problems, and make decisions. But the programs weren't advanced enough, and they couldn't handle complicated tasks. This made the scientists and the people who gave them money feel disappointed. Another problem was that the AI programs didn't work well when they were used on big and complicated systems. They were good for small things, but not for big ones. The computers at that time didn't