Alan Turing: Foundations, Form and Criticisms of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The objective of this article is to define the elements that Alan Turing contributed to the development of the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As a problem, it is proposed to study the contributions of the mathematician to the genesis of the term as we
know it today. Methodologically, the central works of the author are studied to define the logical and epistemological foundations through which an Intelligent Computer operates, in order to assess the contributions to the computational discipline and the eventual formulation of the term. The present investigation offers three results: (1) Turing conceives computers as authentic thinking material objects; (2) the design model of a computer with these characteristics, according to the author, must consider the pattern of brain development (and learning) in children; (3) the posthumous debate on Turing’s thought was decisive for the construction of the agenda of problems that gave rise to the term AI.