Artificial Intelligence at 70 – Ireland’s AI Heritage

Ireland has a long-standing heritage in the emegence of thinking that today we recognise in the field of artificial intelligence going back to Jonathan Swift, George Boole, John McCarthy and many others. This event will be of interest to industry, academia, the general public, students, and wider society, that showcases Ireland’s heritage, legacy, and ongoing contribution and leadership of Ireland in the establishment and growth of the field of AI. Ireland has a long-standing and seminal heritage in the field of artificial intelligence. In the summer of 1956, a first generation Irish emigrant, John McCarthy and colleagues gave the field of AI its name through his organisation of the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. This is regarded as the founding event in AI. John McCarthy maintained a close relationship with his father’s homeplace, Cromán in County Kerry, and was a regular visitor to the area and a visitor to University College Cork. McCarthy’s and a close organiser of the Darmouth event, Claude Shannon, were heavily inspired by the work of George Boole, UCC’s first professor of mathematics. Boole wrote his magnum opus while at UCC, “The Laws of Thought”, which remains a seminal work on symbolic reasoning in AI. The current wave of innovation in AI can be attributed to the work of Geoffrey Hinton, Boole’s great-great grandson. Separately, the original test for artificial intelligence was framed by Alan Turing as his “imitation game”. Turing’s mother was from County Tipperary and his parents were married in Dublin. This event will celebrate Ireland’s heritage and connection with the establishment and evolution of the field of AI, bringing together a programme to showcase Ireland’s reputation as a key player in the evolution and application of the technology. The programme will also feature the launch of the next phase of the ENTIRE European Digital Innovation Hub, highlighting the services it offers to industry, the public sector, and to society as a whole.