text: **History**
  
  The study of mechanical or "formal" reasoning began with philosophers and mathematicians in antiquity. 
  The study of logic led directly to Alan Turing's theory of computation, which suggested that a machine, 
  by shuffling symbols as simple as "0" and "1", could simulate any conceivable form of mathematical 
  reasoning.[319][320] This, along with concurrent discoveries in cybernetics, information theory and 
  neurobiology, led researchers to consider the possibility of building an "electronic brain".[r] They 
  developed several areas of research that would become part of AI,[322] such as McCullouch and Pitts 
  design for "artificial neurons" in 1943,[115] and Turing's influential 1950 paper 'Computing Machinery 
  and Intelligence', which introduced the Turing test and showed that "machine intelligence" was 
  plausible.[323][320] 
  
  The field of AI research was founded at a workshop at Dartmouth College in 1956.[s][6] The attendees 
  became the leaders of AI research in the 1960s.[t] They and their students produced programs that the 
  press described as "astonishing":[u] computers were learning checkers strategies, solving word problems 
  in algebra, proving logical theorems and speaking English.[v][7] Artificial intelligence laboratories were 
  set up at a number of British and U.S. universities in the latter 1950s and early 1960s.[320] 