The Birth of Modern AI
Alan Turing, the Turing Test, and the Foundations of Computer Intelligence.

Introduction:
From Theory to Machine Thinking
The mid-20th century marked a revolutionary shift in the history of Artificial Intelligence. For the first time, humanity moved from dreaming about thinking machines to actually building them. At the heart of this revolution was a brilliant British mathematician and logician — Alan Turing — whose ideas would forever change the way we understand intelligence, machines, and the human mind.
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1. Who Was Alan Turing?
Alan Turing (1912–1954) was a pioneer in mathematics, computer science, and logic. During World War II, he famously worked at Bletchley Park to help crack the Nazi Enigma code, significantly contributing to the Allied victory. But his deeper legacy lies in the world of computing and artificial intelligence.
In 1936, Turing introduced the concept of a theoretical machine — later called the Turing Machine — that could simulate any computation process. This abstract idea became the foundation of modern computers.
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2. Can Machines Think? — The Turing Test
In 1950, Turing published a groundbreaking paper titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”. He began with a bold question: “Can machines think?” But instead of debating the definition of thinking, he proposed a practical test called the Imitation Game, now known as the Turing Test.
In this test, a human interacts with both another human and a machine through a computer terminal. If the evaluator cannot reliably tell which is which, the machine is said to exhibit intelligent behavior.
This was a major philosophical shift: Turing didn’t require machines to think like humans — only to behave intelligently from the outside. His test remains a key concept in AI ethics and evaluation today.
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3. The Rise of Digital Computers.
While Turing laid the theoretical groundwork, technology was catching up. In the 1940s and 50s, the first electronic computers were developed — including ENIAC (USA), Colossus (UK), and later, the UNIVAC.
These massive machines could perform complex calculations faster than any human, but they had no intelligence of their own. Still, their capabilities opened the door for programming logic and data — the raw material of AI.
Turing foresaw this future. He believed that with enough memory, processing power, and the right programming, machines could one day match or even surpass human intelligence.
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4. Logic, Learning, and the First AI Programs
By the late 1950s, inspired by Turing's work, scientists began developing the first programs that could mimic human reasoning. These programs focused on symbolic logic — solving problems using formal rules and representations.
One of the earliest examples was the Logic Theorist, developed by Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon in 1955. It could prove mathematical theorems from symbolic logic, much like a human student. Around the same time, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, and others began building what they called “thinking machines.”
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5. The Term “Artificial Intelligence”
Is Born In 1956,
The famous Dartmouth Conference took place — a summer research project organized by John McCarthy. Here, the term Artificial Intelligence was officially coined.
The proposal stated:
"Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it."
This bold declaration marked the official birth of AI as a field of study.
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Conclusion:
A New Era Begins
With Alan Turing’s visionary ideas, the development of early computers, and the launch of formal AI research in the 1950s, the foundation was set. Machines had not yet become intelligent, but the blueprint had been written — and the race to create thinking machines had officially begun.
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