AIster · Prologue · Culture
The Lighthill report and the AI winters
A critical 1973 review sapped faith in AI and remains a warning against AI hype
Key facts
- Date
- Early 1973
- Era
- Prologue
- Interest
- Culture
- Threads
- Compute, Labs & people
- Report
- “Artificial Intelligence: A General Survey”, dated July 1972
- Commissioned by
- UK Science Research Council, published early 1973
- Outcome
- UK loss of confidence in AI for almost a decade
- 1984 warning
- “The Dark Ages of AI” panel at AAAI-84
In a report dated July 1972 and published by the UK Science Research Council early in 1973, mathematician Sir James Lighthill judged that AI had not delivered what it promised, and was especially critical of basic research such as robotics and language processing. The report led to a loss of confidence in AI among British academics and funders that lasted almost a decade. Lean periods like this became known as AI winters, and in 1984 researchers at the AAAI conference were already warning that inflated expectations could bring another collapse.
Sources
- Chilton Computing (UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council), Lighthill — Overview, 1973-01-01
- Chilton Computing (UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council), Artificial Intelligence: A General Survey, 1972-07-01
- AI Magazine (AAAI), The Dark Ages of AI: A Panel Discussion at AAAI-84, 1985-09-15