The AI revolution didn’t happen overnight—here’s why | Michael Wooldridge | TEDxManchester

In this insightful talk, Professor Michael Wooldridge of Oxford University pulls back the curtain on the "overnight" AI revolution. Far from being a recent phenomenon, the journey of Artificial Intelligence began in the 1940s in Manchester, England. From the code-breaking genius of Alan Turing to the modern-day phenomena of Nvidia and OpenAI, Wooldridge traces the high-stakes history of the technology that is currently reshaping our world. The Professor's talk covers.. The Early Days: How the first digital computers and the Turing Test set the stage for machine intelligence. The Neural Network Breakthrough: Why the 1980s got the science right, but lacked the data and power to make it work. The GPU Revolution: The unlikely story of how computer game chips (designed for explosions in Call of Duty) became the secret sauce for modern AI. The Rise of Transformers: How a 2017 Google research paper led to the birth of GPT-3 and the early success of ChatGPT. Clever vs Gimmicky vs. Useful: Why AI can solve complex prime number equations in Latin, but still can’t figure out how to load your dishwasher. Michael Wooldridge is the Ashall Professor of the Foundations of Artificial Intelligence at Oxford University. He is best known for his pioneering work on multi-agent systems building multiple artificial intelligences that can cooperate, negotiate, and decipher convoluted problems similar to human collaboration. In 2023, he delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, titled ‘The Truth About AI’, and is a champion for making science accessible, having written the Ladybird Expert Guide to AI and the award-winning The Road to Conscious Machines. For Michael’s thirty years of research, technical breakthroughs and dedication to teaching others, he was recently awarded the prestigious Michael Faraday Prize by the Royal Society in late 2025, becoming the first computer scientist in history to receive it. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx