Edinburgh AI history highlighted at the History of AI in Europe workshop

The University of Edinburgh traces the origins of its activities around AI to a small research group established in 1963, led by Donald Michie. The same year the Computer Unit was created and Sidney Michaelson was appointed its Director. 

35 years later, in 1998, different activities around the science of information (including computer science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and others) were brought together and a new Division (later changed to School) of Informatics was formed. 

In 2023 a rich programme of events was put together to celebrate the 60 years milestone. It included a series of Distinguished Lectures and Milner Lectures scheduled throughout the year, delivered by eminent figures representing both disciplines. Further events delivered by our partners as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival, Pint of Science and Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas, were aimed at non-academic audiences, and last but not least, we presented a 5-day film festival that explored the facts behind the fiction in AI depicted on film and encouraged us to build the future we can imagine. 

The project that followed has collated an impressive repository of existing resources, including lectures, oral history, archives and writings about the history of the School and its antecedents. The resources are available on the project website.  

As part of the project, researchers also conducted interviews with pioneers from the early years, including Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, and produced a paper "A Short History of the Early Years of Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh" which Vassilis Galanos presented at the Workshop on the History of AI in Europe at the 27th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 

The website is an ongoing project, and any contributors who have knowledge, stories etc., related to this history are welcome to get in touch with Xiao Yang or Chris Williams.