The Shortest History of AI

AI is the talk of the town these days. “ChatGPT writes better than I do.” “Google’s AI can make videos now.” “Are we really going to lose all our jobs?” Conversations tinged with both amazement and unease have become part of our daily lives. Not long ago, “AI” was a term you’d only hear in science fiction or flashy tech ads. At one point, “AI” at public health centers referred to avian influenza. But now, it’s common knowledge—even among those around me—that AI means artificial intelligence.

My first vivid memory of AI was in 2016, the day AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol. I was a surgical resident at the time, watching the live YouTube broadcast with colleagues in the hospital lounge. That scene remains crystal clear. Psychologists call this kind of vivid recall a “flashbulb memory”—a phenomenon where a shocking event imprints not only itself but also the exact circumstances in which you experienced it. AlphaGo’s victory was that kind of moment for me. The second came in late 2022, after returning from parental leave and working as an epidemiological investigator for the city of Busan. One day, during a field investigation of food poisoning, I opened ChatGPT on a work PC. That moment marked a realization: AI was no longer a futuristic idea—it had already permeated my daily life.

Artificial intelligence has now woven itself into every corner of our routines. It summarizes the news on my morning commute and edits reports before meetings. These days, it feels natural to ask AI a question rather than type it into a search engine. It suggests recipes based on ingredients I have and creates detailed travel plans for next month. When my child asks questions using ChatGPT’s study mode, it doesn’t just answer like a teacher—it encourages deeper exploration. The media is full of stories about AI-generated videos or artwork translating into real income.

While there’s no doubt that technology makes life more convenient, its pace of change can sometimes feel overwhelming. When people ask how quickly AI will advance, the question often hides another truth—how fast it already has. Speed, after all, is a concept grounded in the distance already traveled. If we don’t know where we started, we can’t understand how fast we’re going. That’s when a thought occurred to me: is something missing from all these conversations about the future? Are we racing down a highway without a rearview mirror? As the world hurtles forward, it seems we’ve forgotten where the journey began.

Then I spotted a book in a bookstore: The Shortest History of AI: The Six Essential Ideas That Animate It. Perhaps it was the familiarity of the word “history” that drew me in. I picked it up instinctively. True to its English title, the book was short yet densely packed. Rarely has the point been made so clearly—if you want to understand AI’s future, you must first understand its past. So, like adjusting a rearview mirror before merging onto the highway, I began reading.

The book’s author, Toby Walsh, is a prominent scholar who refuses to confine artificial intelligence to the realm of science alone. A professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia and a key figure in global AI research networks, Walsh has long explored how AI reshapes human thought and social structures. He offers a clear-eyed, balanced critique of AI’s current state without ever underestimating its potential.

The Shortest History of AI is Walsh’s attempt to weave more than half a century of AI’s development into a coherent narrative. A timeline at the beginning of the book acts as an intellectual roadmap for the entire work. It opens with the “Prehistory” of humanity’s imagination about intelligence, then moves into the “Symbolic Era,” which begins with the landmark 1956 Dartmouth Workshop and marks the true start of formal AI research. This is followed by the “Learning Era,” the “Generative Era,” and finally, a look ahead to a yet-unrealized “Future.”

The main content is organized into three core chapters. The “Symbolic Era” explores early efforts to replicate thinking through logic and rules, broken down into three key themes: “Searching for Answers,” “Making the Best Move,” and “Following the Rules.” This chapter captures both the ambition and limitations of AI’s early attempts to mimic human reasoning and computation. The following chapter, the “Learning Era,” traces AI’s shift to self-directed learning through themes like “On Artificial Brains,” “Rewarding Success,” and “Inferring Belief.” Lastly, the chapter on the “Future” focuses on the “Generative Era,” raising new questions as AI begins to approach human-level creativity.

The heart of this book lies in its refusal to treat AI as mere technological history. Instead, it traces how the very concept of “intelligence” has been redefined over time. The discussions that began in a small room at Dartmouth in 1956 have evolved into today’s massive neural networks that learn human language and imagination. Walsh chronicles this transformation with precision while also uncovering the human desires and fears embedded in it. The Shortest History of AI is both a historical overview of artificial intelligence and a reflection on humanity’s long journey to understand itself.

AI is now changing how we draw, write, work, and learn. The pace of change is so fast that it’s often hard to tell where we stand. The Shortest History of AI is a guide to help us find direction amid that confusion. By retracing the path that brought us here, it reveals that today’s technological landscape is no accident. You don’t need to understand every technical detail. If you’re curious about how the world has changed—and where it’s headed—this book is worth your time. If the news headlines feel unfamiliar, or if you want to face technological change with understanding rather than fear, this book will serve as a reliable guide.

As I closed the final chapter, one thought wouldn’t leave my mind: we’re always talking about the future, but how much of it have we ever truly predicted? Think back five years. At that time, how many people imagined ChatGPT would become a natural part of our daily conversations? So how much of the next five years can we actually foresee? Technological progress continues to outpace our expectations, reshaping the world in ways we never imagined.

History tells us where we’ve come from and offers the wisdom to prepare for what’s next. That’s why, even when excitement and anxiety collide, there’s no need to fear or rush to conclusions about the future. Toby Walsh’s The Shortest History of AI is a small but meaningful milestone in preparing for what’s ahead. What we need is not prophecy, but reflection—not fear, but understanding. The wisest way forward into the future is through the lessons of history.