ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: FROM SEMINAL SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESES TO SOCIO-TECHNICAL REALISATION

Abstract

This paper, excerpted from Que faire de l’intelligence artificielle ? Petite histoire critique de la raison artificielle, offers an account and genealogy of artificial intelligence (AI)’s technical foundations and philosophical implications from its mid-20th-century origins
to the present. The narrative underscores how early scientific hypotheses continue to influence current AI paradigms. Part one uncovers foundational hypotheses—predating the 1956 Dartmouth workshop—that informed both symbolic AI (prevalent
until the late 1980s) and the surge of connectionist methods in recent decades, demonstrating their shared premise of mind and brain as logical machines. Part two examines the sociotechnical labor of AI development, using the ImageNet database as a case study to reveal the hidden work of crowdsourcing in training modern models. By juxtaposing these theoretical foundations with practical industry practices, the paper highlights enduring continuities and transformations in AI research and invites reflection on the technical and social processes shaping the AI industry today.

Keywords

artificial intelligence

mind

logical machines

machine learning

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