Timeline of the Internet and A.I

Timeline of the Internet and A.I

Timeline of the Internet and A.I

Year Event
1969 ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) Goes online in December, connecting four major U.S> universities for research and education joining them with government organizations. Its original purpose is to provide a communication network linking the country in the event that a military attack destroys conventional systems.
1972 Electronic mail is introduced.
1973 Transmillion Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is designed and in 1983 it becomes a standard for communicating between computers over the internet.
1989 The first effort to index the internet is created by Peter Deutsch at McGill University in Montreal, who devises Archie, an archive of FTP sites. Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp. Tim Bemers-Lee of CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) develops a new technique for distributing information on the internet, which eventually is called the World Wide Web. The Web is based on hypertext, which permits the user to connect from one document to another at different sites on the Internet via hyperlinks (specially programmed words, phrases, buttons or graphics).
1991 Gopher, the first user-friendly interface, is created at the University of Minnesota and named after the school mascot
1993 Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreessen at the National Center for Supercomputering Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide Web, which at this time accounts for only 1% of all internet traffic.
1994 The White House launches Web page. Initial commerce sites are established and mass marketing campaigns are launched via email.
1996 Approximately 45 million people are using the internet, with roughly 30 million of those in North America (United States and Canada), 9 million in Europe, and 6 million in Asia/Pacific
1998 More than 20% of all U.S. Households have access to the Internet, up from 13% at the end of 1996.
1999 E-Buisiness or e-commerce - doing business over the web - becomes a major trend in the U.S. and makes significant in-roads into both business-to-business and consumer sales.
2000

Dot-com bubble burst: Many internet-based companies went bankrupt, leading to a significant market crash.

Broadband expansion: The adoption of broadband internet started to increase globally, enabling faster and more reliable connections for users.
Introduction of Deep Blue: IBM's chess-playing computer defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, showcasing early advancements in machine learning and AI.
2001

Launch of Wikipedia: The online encyclopedia began operations, eventually becoming one of the largest and most visited websites globally.

Release of Mac OS X: Apple introduced its new operating system, which integrated more internet-centric features and was built on UNIX.
2003

Launch of WordPress: This open-source content management system was released, transforming website creation and management.

Introduction of Skype: This VoIP service allowed users to make voice and video calls over the internet for free or at low cost.
2004

Launch of Facebook: Initially as a social networking platform for college students, it rapidly expanded to become a global phenomenon.

Google goes public: The search engine company held its initial public offering (IPO), raising significant capital.
2006

Twitter launched: The microblogging platform allowed users to share short messages ("tweets"), becoming a major social media platform.

AWS introduced: Amazon Web Services started offering cloud computing services, transforming the IT infrastructure landscape.
Introduction of TensorFlow: Google released TensorFlow, an open-source machine learning framework, providing tools and resources for AI research and development.
2007

Introduction of the iPhone: Apple launched its smartphone, revolutionizing mobile internet usage and setting new standards for mobile devices.

Launch of Android: Google introduced its mobile operating system, providing an alternative to Apple's iOS.
2008

Bitcoin whitepaper: A person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a whitepaper introducing Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency.

Launch of Airbnb: This platform allowed people to rent out their homes or rooms to travelers, disrupting the hospitality industry.
2010

Instagram launched: This photo and video-sharing platform became immensely popular, eventually being acquired by Facebook.

Introduction of 4G: The rollout of fourth-generation mobile network technology significantly improved internet speed and reliability for mobile users.
2011

Launch of Snapchat: This multimedia messaging app introduced the concept of disappearing messages and became popular among younger demographics.

Introduction of IPv6: Due to the depletion of IPv4 addresses, the adoption of IPv6 began to address the growing demand for internet addresses.
IBM Watson wins Jeopardy!: IBM's Watson supercomputer defeated champions on the quiz show Jeopardy!, demonstrating advancements in natural language processing and AI capabilities.
2012 AlexNet's ImageNet win: The AlexNet deep convolutional neural network achieved a significant breakthrough in image recognition by winning the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge, advancing computer vision capabilities.
2015

Introduction of 5G: The rollout of fifth-generation mobile network technology promised even faster speeds and lower latency for users.

Net Neutrality debate: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules to ensure net neutrality, but the debate continued globally.
Launch of DeepMind: Google acquired DeepMind, a UK-based AI company known for its advancements in deep learning, reinforcement learning, and applications like AlphaGo.
2016 Introduction of GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer): OpenAI released the GPT model, showcasing advancements in natural language processing and generating human-like text.
2017 AI in Healthcare: AI applications in healthcare gained momentum, with advancements in diagnostic imaging, drug discovery, and personalized medicine, leveraging machine learning algorithms and data analytics.
2018 Ethical AI and Bias: Discussions and debates around ethical AI, fairness, transparency, and bias gained prominence, leading to the development of guidelines, principles, and frameworks for responsible AI.
2019 AI in Autonomous Vehicles: Progress in AI technologies enabled advancements in autonomous vehicles, with companies like Tesla, Waymo, and Uber testing and deploying self-driving technologies.
2020

COVID-19 pandemic: The global health crisis accelerated digital transformation, leading to increased reliance on the internet for work, education, and social interaction.

Rise of remote work and digital collaboration tools: Platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack became essential tools for remote work and communication.
AI and COVID-19: AI applications played a significant role in addressing challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including epidemiology modeling, drug discovery, contact tracing, and healthcare resource optimization.
2021 AI Regulations: Governments and organizations worldwide began implementing regulations, policies, and guidelines to address ethical, societal, and legal implications of AI, focusing on transparency, accountability, and human-centric AI development.

Information from The American History Teacher’s Book of Lists by Fay R. Hansen published by John Wiley and Sons

And Chat GPT

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